THE  GIFT  OF 

FLORENCE  V.  V.  DICKEY 

TO  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
AT  LOS  ANGELES 


THE  DONALD  R.  DICKEY 

LIBRARY 
OF  VERTEBRATE  ZOOLOGY 


Castle 


And 

Otber 
Weird 


By 


C.  B.  CORY 


i  9 


NEW    YORK 
RALPH    S.    MIGHILL 


\\I-.M  K 


J899 


OFTEN  AT  NIGHT  HE  SPOKE  WITH  FIERY  ELOQUENCE.     P.  128. 


MONTEZUMA'S  CASTLE 


AND 


OTHER   WEIRD    TALES 


BY 

CHARLES    B.    CORY 

AUTHOR  or  ••  DR.  WANDERMANN,"  «  HUNTING  AND  PUHINO 
IN  FLORIDA,"  rrc. 


NEW    YORK 
RALPH    S.    MIGHILL 

70  FIFTH  AVENUE 
1899 


Copyright,  1899 
BY  CHARLES  B.  CORY 


PRESS  OF 

fcottoell  anB  Cijnrcfittl 
BOSTON,  U.S.A. 


/*• 

C£ 


TO 


Cbarlee  iu.  Crane 

AUTHOR    AND    TRAVELLER 
WHOSE     NAME    RECALLS    MANY    PLEASANT    MEMORIES 

THIS    BOOK 
IS     DEDICATED 


395910 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

MONTEZUMA'S  CASTLE 7 

THE  AMATEUR  CHAMPIONSHIP 23 

THE  TRAGEDY  OF  THE  WHITE  TANKS    ....  43 

Too  CLOSE  FOR  COMFORT 55 

THE  STRANGE  POWDER  OF  THE  Jou  Jou  PRIESTS.  75 

AN  AZTEC  MUMMY 78 

A  LESSON  IN  CHEMISTRY 90 

AN  INTERESTING  GHOST 102 

THE  MOUND  OF  ETERNAL  SILENCE 116 

THE  STORY  OF  A  BAD  INDIAN 127 

A  QUEER  COINCIDENCE 135 

THE  STORY  OF  AN  INSANE  SAILOR 152 

THE  ELDUR  OF  LIFE 173 

THE  VOODOO  IDOL 194 

AN  ARIZONA  EPISODE 205 

ONE  TOUCH  OF   NATURE 218 


(3) 


LIST  OF   ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PAOK 

OFTEN   AT   NIGHT   HE   SPOKE  WITH    FIERY   ELO- 
QUENCE      Frontispiece. 

THE  CASTLE  is  BUILT  ON  A  LEDGE  ON  THE  SIDE 

OF  A  MOUNTAIN 7 

THE  SMOKE  CONTINUALLY  OOZED  FROM  ALL   PARTS 

OF  HIS  BODY 106 

THE  MOUND  OF  ETERNAL  SILENCE 118 

JUDSON'S  MAP 119 

TDCINOPA 127 

MALTTA 130 

A  SILVER  COIN  •  •  •  ONE  EDGE  HAD  BEEN  FLAT- 
TENED AND  A  HOLE  PIERCED  IN   IT       ....  152 

THE  GREAT  Doc  •  •  •   RESTING  HIS  HEAD  ON 

THE  COWBOY'S  KNEE  .  218 


(5) 


MONTEZUMA'S    CASTLE. 


*M°»"  said   the  curiosity  dealer,  "that 

-1  ^  mummy  is  not  for  sale.  I  had  too 
big  a  job  to  get  it." 

"  Tell  me  about  it,"  I  asked. 

The  curiosity  dealer  carefully  closed  and 
locked  the  case,  and  then  meditatively  rolled 
a  cigarette. 

"Well,  it  was  this  way:  you  See  I  was 
out  after  snakes  and   other  natural    history 
specimens.     I  had   a   special   order  from  a 
chap  in  New  York  for  three  hundred  snakes 
e  wanted  some  big  rattlers.     I  think  I 
sent  him  some  that  pleased  him;  anyhow  he 
paid  for  them  all  right.     I  had  a  customer 
who  wanted  a  rattlesnake  with  a  very  big 
rattle,  and  I  fixed  up  a  snake  for  him  on 


g  MONTEZUMA?S    CASTLE. 

this  trip  and  sent  it  to  him  afterwards.  It 
had  one  hundred  and  eighteen  rattles!  I 
glued  a  lot  of  rattles  together,  and  by  tak- 
ing off  the  buttons  it  was  pretty  hard  to  see 
where  they  were  joined.  This  rattle  was 
more  than  a  foot  long. 

"  There  was  another  Eastern  chap  wanted 
an    ibex,   which   he  said  was   found    up  in 
these  mountains.    It  had  light-colored  horns 
curved  over  at  the  tips  like  a  chamois  and 
striped  legs  and  eyes  that  stuck  out  like  an 
antelope.      He    had   heard    about    the  ibex 
and  wanted  a  pair.     I  told  him  I   had  often 
killed  them,  but  they  were  hard  to  get." 
"What  is  an  ibex?"  I  asked. 
"  I'll  be  hanged  if  I  know,"  answered  the 
collector.     "But  there  are  fellows  in  these 
mountains    who    say  that    there    really   are 
such  animals,  and  if  he  wanted  to  have  an 
ibex,  and  had  to  have  an  ibex,  I  might  as 
well  get  him  an  ibex  as  anybody  else,  even 
if  I  had  to  make  one. 


MONTEZUMA'S   CASTLE.  9 

"  But  to  get  back  to  my  story.  I  had  a 
big  outfit  on  this  trip  and  I  expected  to  get 
a  lot  of  curios  one  way  and  another,  what 
with  snakes  and  animals  of  various  kinds, 
besides  all  the  things  that  I  might  pick  up 
in  the  way  of  baskets  and  Indian  relics, 
which  might  prove  salable.  My  outfit  con- 
sisted of  two  wagons,  five  horses,  and  I  had 
a  Mexican  along  to  look  after  the  teams 
and  do  the  cooking. 

"After  being  out  some  two  weeks  we 
found  ourselves  near  what  is  called  'Monte- 
zuma's  Castle,'  up  by  the  Verde.  There 
are  a  lot  of  caves  scattered  about  up  there, 
supposed  to  have  been  made  by  the  Cave 
Dwellers,  and  many  of  them  had  never 
been  touched  or  examined. 

"  I  had  an  offer  of  good  money  for  a 
mummy,  and  had  tried  making  them  from 
the  bodies  of  Indian  children,  but  I  never 
could  get  them  to  look  real.  The  bones 
are  not  crumbly  enough,  and  the  rags  which 


10  MONTEZUMA'S    CASTLE. 

the  real  mummies  are  done  up  in  are  pretty 
difficult  to  imitate. 

"I  was  mighty  anxious  to  explore  the  big 
caves,  so  off  we  went  to  the  place,  and  I  tell 
you  the  old  ruin  they  call  '  Montezuma's 
Castle '  is  a  dandy,  and  don't  you  forget  it. 
The  castle  is  built  on  a  ledge  high  up  on  the 
side  of  a  mountain  which  hangs  over  at  the 
top.  The  only  way  to  get  up  is  by  ladders 
or  ropes,  and  it  is  mighty  hard  to  get  there 
even  then. 

"  Right  near  there,  on  the  face  of  the 
high  cliff,  there  are  a  lot  of  fine  old  Cliff 
dwellings,  and  some  of  them  are  more  than 
one  hundred  feet  from  the  base.  These 
cliffs  are  straight  up  and  down,  sometimes 
nearly  smooth,  but  often  with  narrow 
broken  ledges  here  and  there  on  the  face 
of  the  wall. 

"  One  particular  cave  which  seemed  to 
be  a  rather  large  one  was  about  fifty  feet 
up,  and  immediately  below  it  were  two  or 


MONTEZUMA'S   CASTLE.  II 

three  small  ledges,  which,  after  I  had 
looked  the  place  over,  seemed  to  me  to 
be  sufficiently  wide  to  hold  a  ladder  ;  and 
I  came  to  the  conclusion  that  if  I  wished 
to  explore  one  of  these  caves  I  had  better 
try  the  one  in  question. 

"  In  my  outfit  I  had  two  large  tents,  nine 
by  fourteen,  and  the  poles  of  these  tents,  it 
seemed  to  me,  would  answer  very  well  for 
ladders  if  I  connected  them  by  pieces  of 
rope.  It  was  not  necessary  to  make  the 
steps  very  near  together,  and  by  cutting 
notches  in  the  poles  and  tying  pieces  of 
rope  across  I  succeeded  in  making  two 
very  good  ladders,  one  fourteen  feet  long, 
with  the  two  top  poles  —  one  from  each 
tent  ;  and  two  small  ladders,  each  about 
seven  feet.  I  made  these  last  from  the 
four  upright  tent  poles,  there  being  two 
to  each  tent,  as  you  know. 

"The  foot  of  the  cliff  was  rough,  and  the 
first  fifteen  feet  or  so  we  could  climb  easily 


I2  MONTEZUMA'S    CASTLE. 

to  a  broad  ledge,  then  there  came  a  space 
between  nine  and  ten  feet  in  height,  which 
was  as  smooth  and  perpendicular  as  a  wall. 
Here  my  first  ladder  was  put  up.  Two 
small  ledges  above  this,  some  three  feet 
apart,  and  a  wider  ledge  four  feet  higher, 
allowed  me  to  climb  up,  without  the  use  of 
ladders,  to  another  ledge. 

"  From  here  I  ran  another  small  ladder 
up  to  a  ledge  which  was  between  two  and 
three  feet  wide  ;  from  this  ledge  to  the 
entrance  of  the  cave  was  about  twelve  feet, 
and  my  fourteen-foot  ladder  answered 
finely,  but  the  difficulty  was,  it  had  to  stand 
so  straight  that  it  was  rather  ticklish  busi- 
ness going  up  •  one  could  not  help  feeling 
that  a  slip  or  a  little  backward  jerk  would 
topple  it  over  into  the  valley  below,  and  as 
from  the  ledge  where  it  stood  to  the  bottom 
was  some  forty  feet,  a  tumble  on  to  the 
rocks  would  prove  most  unpleasant. 

"  However,  my  Mexican,  Antonio,   held 


MONTEZUMA'S   CASTLE.  13 

the  ladder,  and  by  very  careful  work  I  suc- 
ceeded in  reaching  the  mouth  of  the  cave 
and  crawling  in.  I  had  no  sooner  entered 
than  I  felt  pretty  sure  it  had  never  pre- 
viously been  visited  by  any  one  since  the 
original  inhabitants  left  it.  The  first  thing 
I  did  was  to  take  a  stout  piece  of  twine 
from  my  pocket  and  fasten  the  end  of  the 
ladder  to  a  piece  oi  rock.  Then  I  felt 
easier. 

"  There  were  numerous  bits  of  broken 
potter}'  scattered  about  and  one  nearly  per- 
fect specimen.  Besides  these  there  was  a 
very  interesting  bit  of  stone  carving.  These 
things  I  gathered  together  and  placed  in  a 
heap  near  the  entrance.  I  then  went  back 
and,  taking  a  small  hatchet  which  I  had 
brought  with  me,  commenced  to  dig  about 
in  the  floor  and  pretty  soon  found  this  little 
child  mummy. 

"  By  the  time  I  had  taken  it  out  I  was 
pretty  thirsty  and  hot,  as  you  may  suppose. 


IZ|.  MONTEZUMA'S    CASTLE. 

I  was  careful  and  did  not  hurry  matters, 
and  the  cave  was  like  an  oven. 

"  Wrapping  the  little  mummy  carefully  in 
a  big  handkerchief  which  I  had  tied  round 
my  neck,  I  untied  the  twine  from  the  ladder, 
and  lowered  the  bundle  slowly  down  to 
Antonio,  my  Mexican,  who  was  standing  at 
the  foot  of  the  top  ladder.  It  reached  him 
safely,  but  while  he  was  untying  it  I  care- 
lessly dropped  the  end  of  the  string.  I 
went  back,  however,  and  gathered  up  the 
other  relics,  intending  to  take  some  of  them 
down  with  me  and  then  come  back  for  the 
rest  if  I  could  not  manage  them  all  the  first 
time. 

"  While  I  was  looking  them  over  I  heard 
a  crash  and  the  sound  of  tumbling  stones, 
and  looking  out  I  saw  that  the  ladder  had 
fallen,  and  commenced  to  curse  Antonio 
for  his  carelessness;  but  imagine  my  horror 
when  I  saw  him  throw  down  the  bottom 
ladder  and  then  run  as  fast  as  he  could 


MONTEZUMA'S   CASTLE.  15 

towards  the  camp.  My  first  and  only 
thought  was  to  pay  Antonio  for  his  treach- 
ery. It  was  evidently  his  intention  to 
leave  me  safely  housed  in  a  place  from 
which  I  could  never  escape  alive,  and  start 
off  the  proud  owner  of  the  two  wagons, 
five  horses,  and  various  valuables  which  he 
believed  my  boxes  to  contain. 

"My  revolver  was  still  in  my  belt,  and 
hastily  pulling  it  I  commenced  shooting  at 
the  running  figure,  now  some  sixty  or 
seventy  yards  distant.  The  first  bullet 
knocked  up  a  cloud  of  dust  about  three  feet 
to  his  right  and  a  little  ahead,  the  second 
was  still  worse,  but  at  the  third  he  turned 
sideways,  staggered  on  several  paces,  and 
fell  among  some  loose  rocks  in  a  way  that 
must  have  been  unpleasant.  He  tried  to 
get  up  again,  but  I  now  had  his  range  pretty 
well  and  hit  him  again  with  the  sixth  shot; 
after  that  he  lay  pretty  quiet,  although  I 
thought  I  saw  him  move  his  arm  once  or 


!6  MONTEZUMA'S    CASTLE. 

twice.  I  reloaded,  having  plenty  of  cart- 
ridges in  my  belt,  and  began  shooting  at 
him  again.  This  time  I  hit  him  three  times 
out  of  six  shots,  and  as  he  had  not  moved 
for  some  minutes  I  concluded  that  he  was 
dead. 

"  Then  I  began  to  think  over  how  I  was 
going  to  get  down.  I  was  very  thirsty  and 
it  was  tantalizing  to  see  the  water  down  in 
the  valley  sparkling  in  the  sunlight.  It 
looked  very  clear  and  refreshing. 

"  I  thought  and  thought,  and  the  more  I 
thought  the  more  hopeless  it  seemed  to  me 
to  plan  a  way  to  get  down  alive.  There 
was  one  ladder  still  standing,  —  the  second 
one,  —  but  there  was  a  space  of  some  thirty 
feet  before  I  could  reach  it.  I  had  abso- 
lutely nothing,  not  even  a  string,  to  aid  me 
in  getting  down. 

"  There  was  no  use  hoping  for  help  from 
any  one,  for  the  place  was  rarely  visited,  and 
it  might  be  weeks  before  any  person  would 


MONTEZUMA'S   CASTLE.  17 

discover  that  I  was  there.  I  was  getting 
more  thirsty  all  the  time,  and,  at  last,  I 
hated  to  go  to  the  mouth  of  the  cave,  hot 
as  it  was  inside,  because  the  sight  of  the 
water  nearly  drove  me  mad.  I  amused 
myself  by  occasionally  taking  a  shot  at 
Antonio.  I  had  his  range  down  pretty 
fine,  now,  and  rarely  missed  him.  It  was 
getting  late,  and  the  sun  had  long  since 
sunk  out  of  sight.  Above  the  mountains 
there  was  one  tall  peak  which  I  could  see 
up  the  canon.  It  stood  out  in  the  sunlight 
bright  and  shining,  even  after  the  cafton  had 
become  quite  dark. 

"  As  the  sun  sank  lower  and  lower  the 
darkness  crept  gradually  up  until  only  the 
very  top  was  left  a  shining  point.  For  a 
few  minutes  it  shone  a  fiery  red  and  then 
the  light  was  gone  like  a  huge  torch  which 
flickers  and  goes  out. 

"Then  the  night  noises  commenced:  the 
incessant,  maddening  croaking  of  the  frogs 
and  now  and  then  an  owl. 


j8  MONTEZUMA'S   CASTLE. 

"Did  you  ever  hear  the  frogs  in  Ari- 
zona ?  " 

I  responded  in  the  affirmative. 

"  Well,  then,  you  know  something  about 
what  they  sound  like,  and  know  they  can 
give  Eastern  frogs  cards  and  spades  and 
beat  them  easy.  But  you  don't  know  what 
they  sound  like  when  you  are  really 
thirsty !  " 

"  Probably  not,"  I  answered. 

"  Well,"  continued  the  curiosity  dealer, 
"  I  knew  nothing  could  be  done  until 
morning,  so  I  lay  down  and  tried  to  sleep. 
I  was  very  nervous  and  could  not  help 
fearing  that  in  the  night  I  might  walk  in 
my  sleep  or  roll  to  the  mouth  of  the  cave 
and  tumble  out.  I  do  not  think  I  really 
slept  at  all,  but  lay  in  a  half-dazed  condi- 
tion until  it  was  light  enough  for  me  to  see 
things  in  the  canon  below. 

"  Strange  to  say,  I  was  not  hungry,  al- 
though I  had  eaten  nothing  since  the  pre- 


MONTEZUMA'S   CASTLE.  19 

vious  morning.  My  whole  thoughts  were 
concentrated  on  the  one  desire — something 
to  drink!  I  thought  and  pondered,  trying  to 
think  of  some  possible  way  to  get  down! 
At  one  time  I  thought  seriously  of  jump- 
ing to  the  ledge  below,  but  I  knew  that  it 
would  be  impossible  for  me  to  stay  on  it 
even  if  my  legs  were  not  broken  by  the 
fall,  and  that  to  jump  meant  practically  to 
commit  suicide! 

"At  last  a  thought  occurred  to  me  that 
I  might  possibly  make  a  rope  out  of  my 
clothes.  I  had  a  large  pocket  knife  and  a 
hatchet,  and  no  sooner  had  the  thought 
suggested  itself  than  I  commenced  to  un- 
dress. My  canvas  coat,  shirt,  and  trousers 
and  some  thin  underclothes  constituted  my 
entire  wardrobe,  and  by  carefully  cutting 
them  into  strips  wide  enough  to  bear  my 
weight,  and  yet  narrow  enough  to  give 
sufficient  length,  I  succeeded  in  making  a 
kind  of  a  rope  with  which  I  hoped  I  could 


20  MONTEZUMA'S   CASTLE. 

succeed  in  reaching  the  second  ladder 
without  broken  bones! 

"  I  could  not  work  steadily,  as  it  was  im- 
possible for  me  to  avoid  getting  up  and  now 
and  then  walking  about  the  cave.  I  suf- 
fered so  with  the  heat  and  thirst,  that  the 
hope  of  escape  alone  kept  me  from  going 
mad.  At  last  the  rope  was  done  and  tied  to- 
gether with  various  knots.  It  had  a  creepy 
sort  of  stretchy  feeling  when  I  pulled  on 
it,  but  I  had  no  alternative  but  to  trust  to  it, 
—  it  was  that  or  nothing,  and  nothing  meant 
death  from  thirst  in  a  very  short  time. 

"  I  succeeded  in  fixing  the  hatchet  firmly 
into  and  across  a  cleft  in  the  rock  where  it 
was  split,  and  it  gave  me  something  to 
tie  the  rope  to  which  I  was  satisfied  would 
hold  my  weight.  I  tied  the  end  of  the  rope 
to  the  hatchet  handle  and  threw  the  other 
end  down,  and  was  mighty  glad  to  see  that 
it  reached  within  four  or  five  feet  of  the 
middle  ledge. 


MONTEZUMA'S   CASTLE.  21 

"  I  was  stark  naked  excepting  my  shoes, 
and  I  tell  you  it  was  no  easy  task  letting 
one's  self  down  over  the  sharp  edges  of  the 
rock.  Every  moment  I  expected  one  of 
the  knots  to  give  way,  and  I  shall  never 
forget  the  feeling  which  came  over  me  as 
I  swung  myself  clear  of  the  ledge  and  hung 
swaying  on  that  improvised  rope  which 
seemed  to  stretch  and  grow  thin  in  a  way 
which  sent  cold  shivers  running  up  and 
down  my  spine.  It  seemed  a  year  before 
I  reached  the  ledge.  I  went  down  pretty 
slow,  sparing  the  rope  as  much  as  I  could 
by  supporting  part  of  my  weight  by  digging 
my  toes  into  every  little  crack  and  crevice  I 
could  find,  but  I  got  there  at  last,  and  when 
I  did,  I  sat  down  on  the  ledge  and  cried  like 
a  baby. 

"  Well,  that  is  the  story.  Of  course  I  got 
down  the  rest  of  the  way  all  right,  or  I 
wouldn't  be  here;  but  I  don't  know  as  I 
would  have  done  it  if  Antonio  had  pulled 


22  MONTEZUMA'S    CASTLE. 

down  the  second  ladder  instead  of  the  bot- 
tom one.  He  was  evidently  in  too  much 
of  a  hurry  to  do  the  job  up  right.  After 
reaching  the  second  ladder,  it  was  no  kind 
of  a  trick  to  slide  it  down  and  use  it  over 
again.  The  first  thing  I  did  when  I  got 
down  was  to  run  as  fast  as  I  could  to  the 
river  and  drink  as  much  water  as  I  dared, 
then  I  lay  down  in  the  water  and  enjoyed 
it.  Talk  about  your  Paradise  Cocktails  — 
they  are  not  to  be  compared  with  that 
Verde  River  water  which  I  tasted  that 
day!" 

"Antonio?" 

"  Oh,  yes,  he  is  there  yet,  I  believe, 
although  I  have  never  been  back  since  to 
see,  and  I  hope  I  never  will.  My  first 
experience  among  the  Cliff  Dwellers  was 
all  sufficient." 


THE  AMATEUR  CHAMPIONSHIP. 


i. 

A  COMMITTEE  from  the  Phcenix  Ath- 
letic Club  and  one  from  the  Prescott 
Club  had  met,  and  after  considerable  dis- 
cussion had  arranged  a  match  to  decide  the 
Amateur  Championship  of  Arizona. 

As  the  Phoenix  and  Prescott  clubs  were 
far  and  away  the  foremost  athletic  organ- 
izations in  the  Territory,  the  contest  was 
looked  forward  to  with  a  great  interest, 
especially  as  an  intense  rivalry  existed 
between  the  two  cities. 

"  Let  the  contest  be  fair  and  square  on 
both  sides,"  said  Smith,  the  chairman  of 
the  Phcenix  committee.  "  Let  each  club 
send  its  best  man,  who  is  strictly  an  ama- 
teur, of  course,  and  a  member  of  the  club, 
23 


24  THE    AMATEUR    CHAMPIONSHIP. 

in  good  standing,  and  let  the  best  man 
win." 

"Them's  my  sentiments  exactly,"  re- 
sponded Johnson,  the  chairman  of  the  Pres- 
cott  committee.  "  Fair  play  and  honors  to 
the  best  man,  say  I  !  I  did  think  of 
sending  a  young  fellow  I  know  in  our  club 
who  took  some  sparring  lessons  in  'Frisco 
last  year,  and  is  quite  clever;  he's  a  gun- 
smith by  profession,  but  the  trouble  is  he 
has  been  teaching  the  boys  during  his  spare 
time  when  he  could  get  away  from  the 
shop,  and  that  makes  him  a  professional, 
doesn't  it  ?  " 

"  It  does,"  said  Smith,  "  and  I  am  glad  to 
find  you  are  as  particular  as  I  am  in  such 
matters  ;  let  me  tell  you,  it  is  a  pleasure  to 
meet  a  man  like  yourself  who  tries  to  be 
fair  and  square,  and  to  take  no  advantage 
of  anybody.  Let's  take  something." 

During  the  next  few  days  there  were 
anxious  meetings  of  the  committees  in 


THE   AMATEUR   CHAMPIONSHIP.  25 

charge  of  the  arrangements.  A  certain  man 
well  up  in  sporting  matters  went  to  'Frisco 
as  a  committee  of  one,  representing  the 
Prescott  Club,  to  hunt  for  talent;  at  the  same 
time  a  brother  of  the  chairman  of  the 
Phoenix  committee,  who  kept  a  bar-room 
in  Chicago,  received  a  letter  which  caused 
considerable  discussion  between  him  and 
his  partner,  and  several  interviews  with  a 
certain  short-haired,  thick-set  individual 
who  frequented  his  place. 

"  What  I  want,"  said  the  letter,  "  is  the 
best  man  you  can  get.  Some  one  who  is  a 
sure  winner,  and  can  punch  the  stuffing  out 
of  this  amateur  duck  from  Prescott.  Don't 
make  a  mistake,  and  do  not  spare  money. 
Get  a  star,  as  the  boys  will  bet  all  they  have 
on  him,  and  we  do  not  want  to  take  any 
chances." 

The  following  week  the  chairman  of  the 
committee  of  the  Phoenix  organization  re- 
cc-ived  a  letter  from  his  brother  in  Chicago, 


26  THE   AMATEUR    CHAMPIONSHIP. 

which  informed  him  that  for  two  hundred 
dollars,  and  expenses,  they  had  secured  the 
services  of  a  well-known  professional,  but 
one  who  had  never  been  West,  and  who, 
they  were  sure,  could  "  lick"  anything  which 
could  be  produced,  professional  or  amateur, 
on  the  Pacific  Coast.  He  had  commenced 
training,  and  they  could  rest  easy,  and  bet 
as  much  money  as  thev  wanted  to. 

Meanwhile  the  Prescott  Club's  represent- 
ative had  made  a  rich  find  in  San  Fran- 
cisco, in  the  shape  of  an  Australian  profes- 
sional who  had  just  landed  and  was  therefore 
not  likely  to  be  recognized.  He  had  a 
record  of  numerous  victories  in  his  own 
country,  and  cheerfully  undertook,  for  the 
sum  of  seventy-five  dollars,  "  to  knock  the 
bloomin'  head  off  any  bloomin'  duffer," 
anywhere  near  his  own  weight,  that  might 
be  brought  against  him. 

Things  went  along  merrily,  letters  were 
exchanged  between  the  chairman  of  the 


THE   AMATEUR  CHAMPIONSHIP.  27 

two  committees  reporting  as  to  the  progress 
of  their  representatives. 

"  Our  young  man,"  wrote  the  Prescott 
leader,  "  is  doing  very  well,  and  I  hope 
great  things  from  him.  Naturally  we  want 
to  win,  and  have  secured  the  best  man  of 
good  amateur  standing  in  our  town  to  repre- 
sent us.  He  is  a  drug  clerk,  and  his  mother 
objected  pretty  strongly  at  first,  but  she  has 
been  talked  over.  There  will  be  a  party 
of  at  least  one  hundred  of  us  go  down 
with  him,  and  I  hope  you  will  have  front 
seats  reserved  for  us.  Most  of  the  boys 
feel  inclined  to  wager  a  little  on  the  suc- 
cess of  our  representative,  but  he  himself 
does  not  feel  very  confident  of  the  result. 
Upon  my  return  I  found  quite  a  strong 
feeling  in  favor  of  having  the  young  gun- 
smith represent  us,  but,  after  my  conversa- 
tion with  you,  could  not  for  a  moment 
countenance  any  such  proceedings  on  our 
part." 


28  THE   AMATEUR   CHAMPIONSHIP. 

Two  nights  following,  the  Prescott  chair- 
man read  the  following  letter  in  answer  to 
the  one  which  he  had  sent: 


To  R.  W.  JOHNSON,  ESQ., 

Chairman  of  the  Committee 

for  the  Prescott  Athletic   Club, 

Prescott,  Arizona  : 

DEAR  SIR  :  I  am  glad  to  hear  that  there  is  consider- 
able interest  taken  in  the  forthcoming  match.  Boxing 
is  a  noble  art,  and  this  coming  contest  will  no  doubt 
help  to  boom  both  our  clubs.  There  is  a  great  interest 
taken  here  in  the  match,  and  I  warn  you  our  man  is 
getting  himself  in  the  very  best  condition  possible.  He 
is  nervous,  of  course,  this  being  his  first  appearance  in 
an  affair  of  this  kind.  He  is  a  clerk  in  a  bank,  who  has 
lately  been  engaged  by  my  friend  Robinson,  and  there- 
fore does  not  get  as  much  time  for  exercise  as  perhaps 
would  be  wise,  but  Robinson  is  an  enthusiastic  sport,  as 
you  know,  and  has  arranged  to  let  him  get  off  several 
hours  each  day.  We  look  forward  to  a  great  contest, 
and  I  certainly  feel  that  the  winner  may  fully  consider 
himself  the  Amateur  Champion  of  the  Territory.  We 
shall  take  great  satisfaction  in  reserving  the  one  hundred 


THE  AMATEUR  CHAMPIONSHIP.  29 

seats  you  ask  for.  I  think  you  will  find  all  the  money 
ready  for  you  in  the  way  of  bets  that  you  will  want. 
Our  population  is  made  up  a  great  deal,  as  you  know, 
largely  of  miners  and  ranchers,  and  they  are  inclined  to 
bet  recklessly.  I  cannot  close  without  congratulating 
the  Prescott  Athletic  Club  for  the  energy  and  enterprise 
they  have  shown  in  this  matter.  May  the  best  man 
win  1 

Yours,  etc., 

J.  SMITH. 

II. 

There  was  a  great  crowd  packed  into  the 
ring  of  the  Phoenix  Athletic  Association  on 
the  evening  of  the  contest.  Seats  were  at 
a  premium,  and  the  fight  had  been  the  prin- 
cipal subject  of  conversation  for  days.  The 
two  principals  had  met  and  been  intro- 
duced to  one  another,  just  before  going  to 
the  scene  of  the  contest.  Both  were  dressed 
for  the  occasion,  and  I  tell  you  they  were 
sights!  The  bank  clerk  had  on  a  collar  so 
high  that  he  could  hardly  turn  his  head,  a 


3° 


THE    AMATEUR    CHAMPIONSHIP. 


high  silk  hat,  long  black  frock-coat,  and  an 
immense  white  rose  in  his  buttonhole. 

The  Prescott  drug  clerk  was  still  more 
gorgeous.  Besides  a  buttonhole  bouquet 
and  high  collar,  he  sported  an  eye-glass,  and 
smoked  a  cigarette  while  in  the  presence  of 
his  opponent. 

"  'Ow's  yer  bloomin'  'ealth  ?  "  remarked 
the  drug  clerk.  "  Hi  'opes  as  'ow  yer 
fit." 

"  Ah-h-h,  go  arn,"  answered  the  embryo 
financier,  using  only  one  side  of  his  mouth, 
"don't  try  ter  jolly  me,  yer  sage-brush  dude, 
or  I'll  give  yer  a  poke  right  here." 

Several  members  of  the  committee  has- 
tened to  interfere,  and  put  a  stop  to  all  further 
danger  of  trouble  by  hurrying  the  principals 
off  to  their  dressing-rooms  to  prepare  for  the 
contest. 

In  the  ante-room  Smith  hugged  Robinson, 
and  nearly  wept  with  joy  when  they  were 
alone. 


THE    AMATEUR   CHAMPIONSHIP.  31 

"  Did  you  take  a  good  look  at  the  stiff?  " 
he  gasped.  "  Why,  our  man  will  punch 
daylight  out  of  him  in  two  minutes  after  the 
gong  sounds !  Why,  I  say  this  is  wrong  — 
it  is  too  easy;  I  really  feel  sorry  for  these 
Prescott  chaps!" 

Robinson  chuckled  and  muttered  some- 
thing about  "  fools  and  their  money  being 
soon  parted,"  and  then  the  two  worthies 
repaired  to  the  ringside. 

Smith  was  to  be  Master  of  the  Ceremo- 
nies, and  climbing  upon  the  raised  platform 
he  crawled  through  the  ropes,  and  after 
looking  about  him  for  a  moment,  raised  his 
hands  to  enjoin  silence. 

"  Gentlemen,"  he  said,  "  I  must  beg  you 
all  to  stop  smoking.  The  contest  which  is 
to  be  held  here  to-night  is  to  decide  the 
Amateur  Championship  of  the  Territory  of 
Arizona.  Nothing  is  more  calculated  to 
incite  among  our  younger  men  the  love  for 
athletic  sports  than  such  competitions,  when 


32  THE   AMATEUR   CHAMPIONSHIP. 

conducted  in  a  fair  and  sportsmanlike 
manner.  I  must  beg  of  you  not  to  allow 
yourselves  to  be  biased  towards  indulging 
in  any  unseemly  noise  in  case  your  favorite 
should  be  worsted.  What  we  want  is  a 
fair  field  and  no  favoritism,  and  while  we 
hope  our  boy  will  win,  none  of  you,  I  am 
sure,  would  wish  in  any  way  to  feel  that 
either  man  was  given  any  undue  advantage. 
The  men  will  fight  with  3~oz.  gloves,  Mar- 
quis of  Queensbury  rules,  three  minutes  to 
each  round,  with  a  minute's  rest  between. 
A  man  down  to  get  up  inside  of  ten  sec- 
onds or  be  counted  out.  No  hitting  in  the 
clinches.  Many  of  you  are  acquainted  with 
the  gentlemen  who  are  our  representatives 
this  evening,  but  for  the  benefit  of  those 
who  are  not  I  will  introduce  them." 

Waving  his  hand  towards  the  Prescott 
pugilist,  he  said: 

"  This  is  Alexander  Harrington,  amateur 
champion  of  the  Prescott  Athletic  Club, 


THE   AMATEUR   CHAMPIONSHIP.  33 

who  is,  I  may  say,  by  profession  a  popular 
druggist  in  the  town  from  which  he  comes. 
[Considerable  applause.] 

"  And  this,"  he  continued,  pointing  to  the 
man  who  represented  the  Phoenix  Club,  "  is 
J.  Francis  Livingstone,  a  young  man  who  has 
shown  himself  to  be  a  good  exponent  of  the 
noble  art,  and  who  is  deemed  to  be  the 
amateur  champion  of  the  Phoenix  Athletic 
Association.  As  he  has  only  lately  arrived, 
and  is  not  very  well  known  to  many  of  you, 
I  may  add  that  he  is  a  personal  friend  of  our 
Vice-president,  Mr.  Robinson,  and  is  em- 
ployed at  his  bank.  [Wild  enthusiasm.] 
As  there  can  be  no  question  as  to  the  ama- 
teur standing  of  the  gentlemen,  I  will  again 
beg  of  you  to  treat  both  men  with  equal  favor, 
and  will  ask  the  Referee  to  call  time  I " 

The  seconds  at  this  climbed  down  from 
the  ringside,  shoving  their  stools  out  under 
the  ropes,  and  the  two  athletes,  throwing 
aside  their  bath  robes,  stood  up  in  their 


34 


THE    AMATEUR    CHAMPIONSHIP. 


corners,  each  stripped  to  the  buff,  with  the 
exception  of  tight  trunks  and  canvas  shoes. 
A  roar  of  admiration  and  astonishment  went 
up  as  the  bank  clerk  first  exposed  himself, 
and  Robinson  grinned  at  Smith  across  the 
ring  as  the  splendid  exhibition  of  muscle  was 
exhibited.  It  was  evident  that  the  bank  clerk 
had  not  devoted  all  his  time  to  banking;  he 
was  apparently  as  fit  as  a  race-horse,  and  the 
muscles  of  his  back  and  arms  twisted  and 
rolled  about  like  snakes,  at  every  movement. 

But  Robinson's  expression  altered  some- 
what as  he  glanced  at  the  drug  clerk. 
That  individual  was  somewhat  shorter  than 
his  opponent,  but  if  the  banking"  representa- 
tive was  well  developed,  he  of  the  phar- 
maceutical persuasion  was  magnificent. 

Both  men  had  been  fanned  and  washed, 
their  gloves  carefully  tied  on,  and  they  now 
stood  rubbing  their  shoes  on  some  powdered 
rosin  which  was  scattered  about  the  corners, 
eyeing  each  other  intently.  What  they 


THE   AMATEUR   CHAMPIONSHIP.  35 

thought  will  probably  never  be  given  to  the 
public,  but  there  is  no  doubt  that  each  must 
have  experienced  a  feeling  of  surprise  at  the 
physical  condition  of  his  opponent.  This 
did  not  affect  them  in  the  least,  however,  as 
they  were  both  as  anxious  to  begin  as  bull- 
dogs, and  when  time  was  called  and  the 
gong  rang,  they  danced  to  the  middle  and 
commenced  sparring  for  an  opening,  grin- 
ning with  confidence. 

For  the  first  minute  or  two  nothing  was 
done.  Forward  and  back  they  moved,  their 
arms  moving  in  and  out,  each  with  his  eyes 
fixed  on  the  face  of  his  opponent,  watching 
closely  for  an  opening.  Then  the  bank  clerk 
jumped  in  and  led  one,  two,  without  effect, 
for  his  first  blow  was  neatly  guarded  and  the 
second  brought  a  vicious  cross-counter  in 
return,  which  grazed  his  nose  as  he  got  back 
out  of  the  way.  In  came  the  drug  clerk 
with  a  rush,  and  they  closed  just  as  the  gong 
sounded  which  ended  the  round. 


36  THE    AMATEUR   CHAMPIONSHIP. 

Up  through  the  ropes  came  the  seconds 
with  the  activity  of  a  lot  of  monkeys,  and 
the  two  men  were  hurriedly  seated  upon 
stools  and  each  was  fanned  furiously  with  a 
towel  by  one  second,  while  the  other  bathed 
his  neck  and  face  with  cold  water.  A  hum 
of  conversation  arose. 

"  Who  is  the  blooming  duck?  "  whispered 
the  druggist  to  his  principal  second.  "  '  E 
ain't  no  bleeding  dude,  I  can  tell  yer." 

But  before  the  man  had  time  to  reply,  the 
gong  sounded  the  call  of "  time,"  and  the  men 
sprang  forward  to  the  middle  of  the  ring. 

There  was  no  sparring  this  time  —  they 
went  at  it  biff,  bang,  right  and  left,  sending 
in  their  blows  with  all  the  power  of  their 
muscular  bodies.  The  Referee,  almost  danc- 
ing with  excitement,  shouted  to  them  to 
"  break  away,"  and  tried  to  part  them  when 
they  clinched,  but  they  were  no  sooner  sep- 
arated than  they  closed  again,  fighting  with 
the  energy  and  tenacity  of  bull-dogs. 


THE   AMATEUR   CHAMPIONSHIP.  37 

Just  before  time  was  up,  the  drug  clerk 
swung  his  right  and  caught  the  gentleman 
of  finance  fair  and  square  on  the  nose,  with 
the  result  that  Prescott  was  awarded  first 
blood  and  first  knock-down,  amid  great 
excitement. 

During  the  one  minute's  rest  the  seconds 
did  wonders.  The  men  were  sponged  and 
rubbed,  while  fanned  constantly  with  a  large 
towel,  water  was  squirted  on  their  heads 
and  the  back  of  their  necks,  and  at  the  sound 
of  the  gong  each  arose  from  his  stool  look- 
ing as  fresh  as  at  the  start. 

Round  3  opened  as  though  it  would  be 
a  repetition  of  the  hurricane  style  of  fight- 
ing of  the  previous  round,  but  after  a  clinch 
or  two  and  giving  and  receiving  a  few  good 
blows,  the  men  kept  apart  and  fought  more 
warily.  Each  had  evidently  become  satis- 
fied that  the  other  was  not  quite  the  easy 
victim  he  had  expected;  and  as  this  convic- 
tion gradually  dawned  upon  them  they 


31)51)10 


38  THE   AMATEUR    CHAMPIONSHIP. 

dropped  the  rough  and  tumble  style  and 
fought  with  more  skill  and  caution,  each 
watching  and  waiting  for  an  opening,  hop- 
ing for  a  chance  for  a  "  knock-out,"  but 
none  came,  and  the  round  closed  with  honors 
even. 

During  the  intermission  Watkins,  the 
sheriff,  who  was  acting  as  Referee,  talked 
earnestly  with  a  friend,  and  from  time  to 
time  looked  hard  at  the  drug  clerk.  He 
turned  towards  the  time-keeper  and  seemed 
about  to  say  something,  when  the  bell  rang 
and  the  men  were  again  in  the  middle  of 
the  ring. 

Round  4  had  commenced. 

They  were  both  fresh  and  eager,  but  busi- 
ness was  written  all  over  their  hard  faces, 
—  they  were  not  smiling  now.  Round  and 
round  they  moved,  constantly  facing  each 
other,  their  arms  moving  back  and  forth 
like  a  machine.  Now  and  then  one  or  the 
other  would  make  a  quick  feint  or  move, 


THE   AMATEUR   CHAMPIONSHIP.  39 

and  the  other  would  spring  back  with  the 
agility  of  a  dancing-master. 

Suddenly  the  financier  thought  he  saw  an 
opening,  and  let  go  his  left,  but  was  short, 
and  received  a  counter  in  return  which 
sounded  all  over  the  place;  then  they  went 
at  it  hammer  and  tongs  and  kept  the  Referee 
very  busy  separating  them,  and  making  them 
fight  fair.  Questionable  prize-ring  methods 
were  resorted  to  by  both  men,  and  the 
knowledge  shown  by  these  amateurs  of  the 
little  unfair  tricks  of  the  professional  prize- 
fighter was  astonishing.  The  bank  clerk 
took  especial  pains  to  stick  his  thumb  in  his 
opponent's  eye  whenever  they  clinched,  and 
the  compounder  of  drugs  used  his  head  and 
elbow  in  a  way  which  is  frowned  upon  by 
advocates  of  fair  play. 

The  men  were  fighting  hard  and  fast  when 
the  round  ended.  Every  man  in  the  crowd 
was  on  his  feet  yelling  like  a  hyena,  as  they 
went  to  their  corners.  Referee  Watkins 


40  THE    AMATEUR   CHAMPIONSHIP. 

walked  to  the  side  of  the  ring,  and  raising 
his  hand  to  enjoin  silence,  stood  waiting 
for  the  uproar  to  subside.  At  last,  when 
he  could  be  heard,  he  addressed  the  crowd 
as  follows: 

"Gentlemen,  I  am  sorry  to  stop  this  fight, 
but  I  must  do  it.  These  men  are  supposed 
to  be  fightin'  for  the  Amatoor  Champeenship 
of  the  Territory.  Whether  this  is  a  put-up 
job  or  not,  I  do  not  know,  but  I  do  know 
that  the  Prescott  man  is  a  professional  pug, 
lately  arrived  from  Australia.  I  suspected 
him  from  the  first.  From  the  way  he  acted 
I  was  pretty  blamed  sure  he  was  no  drug 
clerk  and  my  friend  here,  Jim  Sweeney, 
swears  he  knows  him,  and  that  he  was 
called  the  '  Ballarat  Boy '  when  he  saw  him 
fight  in  Australia,  some  seven  months  ago. 
I  can't  let  this  thing  go  on,  and  have  honest 
men  lose  their  money.  I  am  not  dead 
sure  in  my  mind  that  the  other  man  isn't  a 
ringer  ;  he  is  a  damned  sight  too  good  for 


THE    AMATEUR   CHAMPIONSHIP.  41 

an  amatoor;  but  that  cuts  no  ice.  This 
fight  stops  right  now.  It's  a  draw,  and  all 
bets  are  off." 

There  was  a  tremendous  row,  but  the 
pugilists  were  hurried  off  to  their  respective 
dressing-rooms,  and  the  crowd  slowly  left 
the  building.  On  the  steps  outside,  John- 
son, the  chairman  of  the  Prescott  Athletic 
Club,  met  Smith,  and,  going  up  to  him,  he 
offered  him  his  hand. 

"  Smith,"  said  he,  "  I  want  to  tell  you  how 
pained  I  am  that  the  affair  ended  as  it  did. 
You,  of  course,  do  not  for  a  moment  sus- 
pect that  any  of  us  knew  our  man  was  a 
professional.  How  he  could  deceive  us  I 
cannot  understand.  Why,  I  was  never 
more  fooled  in  my  life!" 

Smith  shook  hands  heartily.  "Don't  say  a 
word,  Johnson  ;  the  best  of  us  are  often 
deceived,  and  the  more  pure  our  motives 
are  the  easier  it  is  to  fool  us." 

"  That's  so." 


42  THE    AMATEUR   CHAMPIONSHIP. 

They  walked  on  in  silence  for  a  short  dis- 
tance. 

"  Smith." 

"  Hallo." 

"  Pity  they  stopped  it  ;  it  was  a  lovely 
scrap  while  it  lasted." 

"  That's  what  it  was,"  said  Smith. 


THE  TRAGEDY  OF  THE  WHITE 
TANKS. 


"  T  DO  not  believe,"  said  the  curiosity 
1  dealer,  "that  the  bite  of  the  gila 
monster  is  fatal.  It  is  poisonous,  no  doubt, 
and  there  have  been  one  or  two  cases  of 
death  where  persons  have  been  bitten  by 
it,  but  it  is  always  well  to  remember  that 
the  teeth  themselves  may  be  in  a  condition 
to  produce  blood-poisoning,  which  might 
cause  death  without  the  assistance  of  any 
particular  toxic  venom.  The  rattlesnake, 
however,  which  is  rather  too  common  in 
the  desert,  is  a  different  sort  of  a  chap.  If 
he  strikes  you,  you  may  just  as  well  make 
your  will,  and  chirp  your  death  song,  as  to 
monkey  with  physicians,  and  squander  some 
43 


44 


THE   TRAGEDY    OF 


of  the  good  wealth  which  may  be  useful  to 
your  family." 

I  asked  him  if  he  did  not  believe  in  the 
efficacy  of  some  of  the  so-called  Indian 
snake  cures. 

"There  are  lots  of  Indian  remedies,"  he 
continued,  "  and  snake  charmers'  cures  for 
rattlesnake  bites,  which  are,  in  my  opinion, 
all  poppy-cock.  It  is  claimed  that  the 
Moquai  Indians,  during  their  Snake  Dance, 
allow  rattlesnakes  to  bite  them,  and  after 
applying  the  juice  of  a  certain  herb  suffer 
no  ill  effects  from  the  poison.  This  may  be 
all  right,  but  the  antidote  is  considerable 
of  a  secret,  and  you  cannot  buy  it  at  your 
druggist's. 

"  There  was  a  chap  over  in  France  who 
claimed  to  have  produced  an  anti-venomous 
serum  which  was  a  sure  cure  for  the 
poison  of  a  rattlesnake,  or  any  other  old 
snake  which  you  might  want  to  have  bite 
you.  I  squandered  five  dollars  of  my  hard- 


THE   WHITE   TANKS.  45 

earned  wealth  in  sending  for  a  bottle.  This 
chap  lives  at  Lille,  France,  and  manufac- 
tures his  serum  at  the  Pasteur  Institute  at 
that  place.  He  gives  careful  directions  as 
to  how  much  to  use,  and  just  how  to  use  it, 
and  it  may  be  all  right  with  some  snakes 
which  have  the  reputation  of  being  bad,  but 
it  don't  go  with  our  rattlers.  I  tried  it  in  all 
sorts  of  ways.  I  tried  to  get  a  Mexican  to 
experiment  on,  but  couldn't.  None  of  them 
had  much  faith  in  the  cure  —  not  enough  to 
let  a  healthy  snake  bite  'em  for  five  dollars. 
"  Then  I  tried  dogs.  I  got  three  curs,  all 
in  robust  health.  The  first  one  died  in  fifteen 
minutes  after  being  struck  by  a  big  rattle- 
snake which  I  had  in  a  box,  although  I 
injected  him  with  a  carefully  measured  dose 
of  the  serum.  Another  one  lived  several 
hours,  and  made  a  hard  struggle.  I  thought 
at  one  time  he  might  pull  through,  but  it 
was  no  use.  He  joined  his  friend  in  dog 
heaven  after  giving  his  final  kick  four  hours 


46  THE   TRAGEDY    OF 

and  fifteen  minutes  after  he  and  the  snake 
had  been  introduced  to  each  other. 

"  The  third  one  was  a  half-breed  bull 
bitch  with  lots  of  vitality.  I  tried  to  make 
this  one  immune  by  injecting  a  dose  of  the 
serum  twenty-four  hours  before,  and  again 
immediately  after  she  was  struck  by  the 
snake,  but  she  did  not  do  as  well  as  the 
other  one,  and  died  in  three  hours  and  six- 
teen minutes.  All  these  dogs  seemed  to 
die  from  inability  to  breathe.  The  poison 
apparently  acts  on  the  respiratory  centres 
rather  than  directly  on  the  heart.  They  all 
vomited  just  before  they  died." 

"  Have  you  never  found  out  what  the 
Indians  use  as  an  antidote?"  I  asked. 

"  No,  I  have  tried,  but  they  keep  it  a 
carefully  guarded  secret.  One  reason  why 
I  believe  that  the  secret  is  so  carefully  pre- 
served is  because  they  have  no  antidote, 
and  the  whole  thing  is  a  bluff. 

"  You  see,"  continued  the  collector,  u  in 


THE   WHITE   TANKS.  47 

my  wanderings  about  the  country  I  have 
run  across  a  great  many  queer  people,  and 
as  you  seem  interested  in  this  subject,  I 
will  tell  you  an  incident  which  happened 
while  I  was  out  at  camp  one  time  at  the 
White  Tanks,  catching  gila  monsters,  horned 
toads,  etc. 

*'  I  remember  the  year  well,  because  I  had 
a  lot  of  trouble  with  a  very  useless  assistant 
of  mine,  whom  I  sent  to  Central  America 
to  collect  for  me.  Among  the  birds  he 
brought  back  were  a  lot  of  skins  of  the 
blue  chatterer  —  the  one  with  the  purple 
throat,  you  know.  He  knew  I  was  anxious 
to  get  new  species,  so  he  thought  he  would 
be  smart  and  make  some  for  me.  So  he 
manufactured  five,  all  with  faked  labels  on, 
showing  that  each  species  was  taken  at 
different  altitudes.  Unfortunately  he  com- 
menced too  high,  and  the  mountains  in  the 
vicinity  where  he  collected,  and  where  the 
labels  indicated  that  the  birds  were  taken, 


48  THE   TRAGEDY    OF 

lacked  several  hundred  feet  of  the  necessary 
altitude  for  two  of  the  species,  so  that  if  his 
labels  were  correct  he  must  have  shot  them 
out  of  a  balloon. 

"  They  all  looked  alike  except  about  the 
throat  and  head.  One  lot  had  a  gold  band 
across  the  breast,  another  had  the  whole 
throat  gold,  others  had  gold  stripes  or 
spots.  I  believe  he  produced  these  gaudy 
effects  with  the  lighted  end  of  his  cigar. 

"He  doctored  up  a  lot  of  humming-birds, 
too,  and  made  me  a  peck  of  trouble.  I 
fired  him,  all  right.  Dishonesty  in  a  trade 
like  mine  is,  I  think,  most  reprehensible, 
and  there  is  no  money  in  it,  because  you  are 
dead  sure  to  get  found  out. 

"  He  was  a  cute  little  chap,  however,  and 
had  learned  a  lot  of  tricks  from  the  Indians. 
He  could  change  a  bird's  color  by  feeding 
it  on  certain  kinds  of  food.  There  is  a  chap 
in  Amsterdam  who  does  about  the  same 
thing  and  brightens  up  old  worn  birds  which 


THE   WHITE   TANKS. 


49 


have  faded  out  in  the  Zoological  Gardens, 
and  sends  them  back  with  all  the  brilliancy 
of  their  original  plumage  restored;  but  he 
cannot  turn  a  red  parrot  blue,  or  make  a 
gray  bird  with  a  yellow  head  turn  to  bright 
orange  all  over,  as  this  chap  could.  He 
told  me  how  he  did  it,  but  the  secret  is  too 
good  to  give  away.  But  to  get  back  to  the 
story  about  rattlesnakes : 

"  It  was,  as  I  said,  in  the  spring  of  '89, 
a  party  of  us  were  camped  at  the  White 
Tanks  about  forty-five  miles  north-west 
of  here,  and  one  day  a  chap  came  into  our 
camp,  a  half-breed  Mexican  Indian,  who 
called  himself  a  snake-charmer.  He  had 
a  box  of  rattlesnakes  which  he  would 
allow  to  twine  round  his  neck  and  bite 
him,  for  a  dollar.  He  travelled  about  the 
country  giving  exhibitions  with  his  snakes, 
and  selling  the  rattlesnake  cure,  which  was 
put  up  in  small  bottles  containing  a  brown- 
colored  liquid,  which  he  claimed  he  made 


^o  THE   TRAGEDY   OF 

from  a  plant  which  was  a  sure  cure  for  the 
bite  of  the  rattlesnake,  and  a  number  of 
the  boys  bought  this  remedy,  paying  him  a 
dollar  a  bottle. 

"  He  had  seen  our  camp,  as  he  drove 
along  the  road  to  Phoenix,  and  he  told  us 
he  had  been  up  country  for  two  or  three 
weeks  visiting  some  mines,  where  he  had 
done  very  well,  selling  his  cure  to  the 
miners  and  exhibiting  his  snakes. 

"There  were  several  of  us  in  the  party, 
and  one  chap,  a  doctor  by  the  name  of 
Baker,  who  was  always  playing  practical 
jokes.  As  we  were  coming  back  to 
Phoenix,  the  next  day,  Miguel,  which  was 
the  snake-charmer's  real  name,  I  believe, 
although  he  was  generally  known  as  Mex- 
ican John,  decided  to  stay  over  a  day  and 
go  back  with  us. 

"  Baker  proposed  that  we  should  see  how 
much  faith  Miguel  had  in  his  own  antidote. 
As  it  happened,  I  had  captured  a  very  big 


THE   WHITE   TANKS.  5! 

rattlesnake  the  day  previous,  and  had  him  in 
a   box   in   my  tent.     By  the    aid    of  some 
forked  sticks  and  bagging  we  succeeded  in 
fastening   the    snake  so   that  he  could   not 
move.      We    then    pried    his    mouth    open, 
and  kept  it  open  with  a  small  stick.     We 
took  all  this  trouble  for  the  purpose  of  pre- 
paring  him    to  assist   in  an  experiment  in 
which  he  and  Mexican  John  were  to  be  the 
principal    performers.     Baker  carefully  cut 
.out  the  poison-sacs,  which  are  situated  just 
beneath  the  temporal  muscle,  back  of  the 
[eye.     It  was   suggested  that    it   would   be 
etter  to   remove  the    fangs,  to  avoid    any 
•ossibility  of  danger;  but  Baker  objected, 
s  he  said  removing  the  fangs  would  give 
lie  whole  thing  away. 

"  He  took  the  precaution,  however,  while 
ie  snake  lay  helpless  with  its  mouth  open, 
o  carefully  wash  the  teeth,  and  then  filled 
he  small  openings  near  the  end  of  the  fangs 
rith  some  dental  cement  which  Baker  had 


cj2  THE   TRAGEDY   OF 

in  his  outfit,  which  hardens  in  a  few  minutes. 
You  see,  the  fangs  of  a  rattlesnake  are  like 
two  hypodermic  syringes.  They  are  hol- 
low tubes,  as  it  were,  with  an  opening  near 
the  point, —  a  little  narrow  slit,  but  one  that 
is  easily  seen,  if  you  look  for  it.  Through 
this  he  squirts  the  poison  by  the  aid  of  the 
temporal  muscle,  which  he  contracts  as  he 
strikes. 

"  As  we  had  removed  the  poison-sacs 
and  plugged  up  the  fangs,  this  snake  was 
not  in  a  very  good  condition  to  do  any 
serious  harm.  He,  however,  was  fighting 
mad,  and  evidently  did  not  enjoy  the  opera- 
tion which  he  had  undergone.  It  did  not 
seem  to  hurt  him  any,  however,  for  he  was 
as  lively  as  a  kitten  when  we  let  him  loose 
in  the  box,  and  was  ready  and  anxious  to 
strike  at  anything. 

"  Towards  evening  Miguel  came  back  to 
camp,  and  we  had  the  snake  all  ready  for 
him.  It  was  a  much  larger  one  than  those 


THE   WHITE   TANKS. 


53 


which  he  had  in  his  box,  and  when  we 
slipped  it  in  among  the  others  we  could 
easily  recognize  it  from  its  size.  The  boys 
asked  John  to  give  an  exhibition  of  the 
curative  powers  of  his  snake  cure,  saying 
that  they  would  like  to  buy  some  more,  but 
wished  to  see  it  tried  before  doing  so. 

"John  was  quite  ready,  and  after  opening 
a  bottle  of  the  antidote  he  lifted  the  cover 
of  his  snake  box,  and  reached  in  his  hand 
to  take  one  of  them  out.  As  he  did  so,  he 
was  immediately  struck  good  and  hard  by 
our  latest  addition  to  the  collection. 

"My,  how  he  carried  on!  He  looked 
hastily  into  the  box,  and  then  at  the  marks 
on  his  hand,  where  the  fangs  had  cut  in. 
He  gave  one  screech,  grabbed  a  knife,  cut 
the  place  wide  open,  and  commenced  to 
suck  it  fiercely,  at  the  same  time  praying 
and  cursing  almost  in  the  same  breath. 

"  The  boys  begged  him  to  apply  his  anti- 
dote, asking  him  what  was  the  matter  and 


54    TRAGEDY  OF  THE  WHITE  TANKS. 

why  he  appeared  to  be  so  frightened,  but 
all  the  answer  they  could  get  was,  '  Don't 
touch  me.  I  am  going  to  die!  I'm  going 
to  die!' 

"And  say,  what  do  you  think?  He  did 
die!  He  got  weaker  and  weaker.  His 
teeth  were  clenched,  and  he  refused  to  take 
whiskey,  although  the  boys  forced  some 
down  his  throat.  In  a  little  while  he  be- 
came insensible,  and  in  less  than  an  hour 
he  was  dead. 

"'  Scared  to  death,'  you  say?  Well, 
maybe  so;  anyway,  the  boys  said  the  laugh 
was  on  Baker!  " 


TOO    CLOSE    FOR    COMFORT. 


WHEN  Dr.  Watson  entered  I  saw  by 
his  manner  that  he  had  something 
of  more  than  usual  interest  to  communicate. 
Watson  has  a  trick  of  winding  and  unwinding 
his  watch  chain  around  his  finger  whenever 
he  has  some  case  in  which  he  is  particularly 
interested.  As  a  rule,  his  work  in  the 
asylum  keeps  him  busy  the  greater  part  of 
the  day,  and  the  little  time  he  has  to  spare 
is  given  to  cases  in  which  he  is  called  in 
consultation  or  by  special  appointment. 

Therefore,  knowing  how  busy  he  was,  I 
felt  certain  that  something  out  of  the  ordi- 
nary had  called  him  from  his  regular  duties 
at  this  time  of  day,  and  I  was  interested  to 
learn  what  it  was. 

55 


c6  TOO    CLOSE    FOR   COMFORT. 

Watson  is  nothing  if  not  direct,  and  rarely 
wastes  words.  On  this  occasion  he  cer- 
tainly lived  up  to  his  reputation,  for  he 
began  talking  before  he  was  fairly  in  the 
room. 

"  My  dear  Morris,"  he  said,  "  I  have 
called  to  talk  with  you  of  a  most  interest- 
ing case,  which  has  lately  come  under  my 
observation.  It  is  one  in  which  I  need 
your  help,  and  I  hope  you  will  be  able  to 
spare  the  time  to  assist  me." 

I  nodded  and  waved  him  to  a  chair. 

"  The  case  in  question  is  a  most  interest- 
ing one,  in  which  hypnotic  suggestion  may 
or  may  not  be  an  important  factor. 

"  You  know  young  Blake,  the  son  of  the 
late  Mathew  Blake,  and  you  are  aware 
that  he  has  been  rather  extravagant  in  his 
habits  and  ways  of  living,  and  although  not 
exactly  a  spendthrift,  undoubtedly  spends 
more  money  than  he  ought  to  in  many 
ways.  The  great  trouble  with  him  is  his 


TOO   CLOSE   FOR   COMFORT. 


57 


passion  for  race-horses,  and  that  is  what, 
one  of  these  days,  is  going  to  break  him 
financially,  unless  I  am  very  much  mistaken. 
"Just  now  young  Blake  has  two  horses 
entered  in  the  big  race  which  comes  off 
day  after  to-morrow  at  Eaton  Park.  One 
of  his  horses,  called  Emperor,  is  well 
known,  and  he  should  easily  win  the  race. 
He  is  by  far  the  best  horse  of  the  lot, 
and  has  been  selling  in  the  pools  for  two  to 
one  against  the  field.  The  other  horse  is 
not  nearly  as  good  as  Emperor,  and  has 
little  chance  of  being  placed.  Murphy,  the 
jockey  who  is  to  ride  Emperor,  is  one  of 
the  best  on  the  turf,  although  comparatively 
a  young  boy,  probably  about  nineteen  years 
old.  He  has  ridden  a  number  of  races,  and 
from  all  reports  is  a  lad  of  good  habits,  and 
seemingly  thoroughly  honest. 

"Young  Blake,  as  you  know,  '  plunges' 
more  or  less  on  his  horses  when  they  run, 
whenever  he  thinks  they  have  a  fair  show 


^ 8  TOO   CLOSE   FOR   COMFORT. 

to  win,  and  in  this  case  he  has  bet  a  great 
deal  more  money  than  he  can  afford  to 
lose,  knowing  that  unless  the  horse  meets 
with  some  unforeseen  accident  he  is  certain 
to  win  the  race.  As  I  understand  it,  he 
has  bet  so  much  money  that  if  by  any 
chance  Emperor  should  lose  the  race  it 
would  seriously  hurt  young  Blake.  Of 
course,  this  is  all  foolishness  from  our 
standpoint,  but  the  fact  remains  that  the 
young  man  has  bet  this  money,  and  that  any 
accident  which  would  interfere  with  his 
pulling  off  that  race  would  cause  him  seri- 
ous loss. 

"  Knowing  his  father  as  I  did,  I  have 
taken  more  or  less  interest  in  the  boy,  and 
have  time  and  again  advised  him  to  let 
racing  alone,  and  settle  down  to  more 
serious  life.  I  should  not  have  taken  the 
special  interest  in  this  particular  race  had 
it  not  been  that  by  a  curious  coincidence 
information  has  come  to  me  which  leads  me 


TOO   CLOSE   FOR   COMFORT. 


59 


to  suspect  that  everything  is  not  as  it  should 
be  at  young  Blake's  stables. 

"  Last  year  one  of  the  stable  boys,  a  lad 
by  the  name  of  Collins,  was  badly  injured 
by  an  accident,  and  young  Blake  saw  that 
he  was  nicely  taken  care  of,  and  paid  him  a 
salary  during  his  illness.  The  youngster 
was  grateful,  and  the  other  day,  it  seems, 
he  came  to  Mr.  Blake  and  told  him  that 
Murphy,  the  jockey  who  is  to  ride  Emperor, 
had  been  sleeping  badly  for  several  nights, 
and  talked  a  good  deal  in  his  sleep  about 
the  horses. 

"Murphy  and  Collins  sleep  together  in 
the  room  over  the  stable,  and  the  night  be- 
fore last  Collins  was  awakened  by  hearing 
Murphy  call  out  to  some  one,  and  then  say 
distinctly,  *  Yes,  yes,  I  understand ;  if  you 
wave  your  handkerchief  I  am  to  '  pull '  Em- 
peror. If  you  do  not  wave  it  I  am  to  win, 
if  I  can.' 

"This  is  serious  business.     The  boy  was 


60  TOO    CLOSE    FOR    COMFORT. 

dreaming,  of  course;  but  why  did  he  dream 
such  a  dream?  The  idea  of  pulling'  being 
in  the  boy's  mind  is  in  itself  enough  to 
cause  serious  reflection.  Yesterday  young 
Blake  called  on  me  and  told  me  this  story 
as  it  had  been  told  to  him  by  Collins. 
Collins  was  present  at  the  time,  and  again 
repeated  his  statement,  declaring  positively 
that  he  could  not  have  been  mistaken  in 
the  words  spoken  by  Murphy  in  his  sleep, 
and  that  the  boy  seemed  very  much  excited. 

"  Blake,  by  my  advice,  sent  for  Murphy 
and  we  had  a  serious  conversation  with 
him.  The  boy  seemed  thoroughly  honest, 
and  was  very  much  hurt  upon  being  ques- 
tioned in  regard  to  the  matter.  He  said 
that  he  had  worked  for  Blake  several  years 
and  had  always  tried  to  do  right,  that  he 
intended  to  ride  his  best,  and  win  the  race 
if  he  could. 

"  Blake  naturally  feels  somewhat  disturbed 
under  the  circumstances,  but  he  believes 


TOO   CLOSE   FOR   COMFORT.  6 1 

the  boy  is  honest,  and  he  believes  young 
Collins  must  in  some  way  have  been  mis- 
taken in  what  he  imagines  he  heard.  Or, 
if  he  was  not  mistaken,  that  Murphy  was 
dreaming,  and  the  words  had  no  signifi- 
cance. 

"  He  told  Murphy  to  go  back  to  the 
stables,  and  that  he  would  trust  him  implic- 
itly, stating  at  the  same  time  that  it  would 
cause  him  serious  inconvenience  if  by  any 
chance  Murphy  should  not  win,  as  he  had 
bet  a  large  amount  of  money  on  the  result. 

"  Murphy,  with  tears  in  his  eyes,  thanked 
him  for  trusting  him,  and  went  back  to  the 
stables.  Afterwards  I  had  a  serious  con- 
versation with  Collins,  and  learned  that  on 
two  occasions  he  had  seen  Murphy  talking 
with  a  strange  man  who  often  visited  the 
track. 

"  Upon  inquiry  we  have  learned  that  the 
man  in  question  is  a  brother  of  a  man  who 
married  Murphy's  sister,  and  that  Murphy 


62  TOO    CLOSE    FOR    COMFORT. 

has  met  him  several  times  at  his  sister's 
house.  The  man's  name  is  Simms.  He  is 
a  low  character,  who  is  known  as  a  habit- 
ual frequenter  of  the  race  track,  and  who  at 
times  does  business  as  a  poolseller  and 
bookmaker.  Simms  is  described  as  being 
thin  and  dark,  with  a  big  scar  on  his  right 
cheek,  usually  wears  a  soft  hat,  and  carries 
a  cane  with  considerable  silver  about  the 
handle. 

"  Last  night  I  decided  to  have  an  inter- 
view with  Murphy  and  rind  out  whether 
the  lad  could  be  hypnotized  or  not.  Why 
this  idea  suggested  itself  to  me  I  do  not 
know,  except  that,  as  you  know,  hypnotism 
is  one  of  my  hobbies.  With  Blake's  con- 
sent I  sent  for  Murphy,  and  asked  him  to 
let  me  look  him  over,  as  I  would  like  to 
assure  Blake  as  to  his  physical  condition, 
as  naturally  he  was  feeling,  as  I  told  him, 
somewhat  nervous  after  our  interview  of  the 
morning. 


TOO   CLOSE   FOR   COMFORT.  63 

"  The  boy  consented  readily  enough,  and 
after  listening  to  his  heart,  and  asking  him 
a  few  questions  which  might  suggest  a 
cause  for  his  restlessness  at  night,  I  asked 
him  to  look  at  me  fixedly  while  I  gently 
stroked  his  forehead  above  the  eyes  with 
my  hand.  Imagine  my  surprise  when  I 
found  him  to  be  an  extremely  sensitive 
hypnotic  subject.  He  did  not  become 
entirely  unconscious,  but  was  in  a  peculiar 
somnambulistic  condition,  in  which  he  con- 
versed readily  enough.  He  is  one  of  the 
best  subjects  for  post-hypnotic  suggestion 
that  I  have  ever  seen. 

"  I  tried  several  experiments  with  him, 
and  the  thought  occurred  to  me  if  it  was 
not  possible  that  this  susceptibility  to  hyp- 
notic suggestion  might  be  used  by  un- 
scrupulous persons  in  many  ways,  which 
might  be  especially  dangerous  in  case  he 
was  riding  a  good  horse  in  a  race. 

"  Upon  questioning  Murphy,  after   I  had 


64  TOO    CLOSE    FOR    COMFORT. 

awakened  him,  regarding  his  susceptibility 
to  hypnotic  influence,  he  told  me  that 
Simms  had  often  put  him  to  sleep  for  fun, 
-when  they  met  at  his  sister's  house.  The 
question  which  now  presents  itself  is,  Sup- 
pose he  has  been  hypnotized  and  has  been 
given  a  post-hypnotic  suggestion,  that  he 
is  to  'pull'  Emperor  if  a  certain  man 
waves  his  handkerchief,  how  are  we  to 
prevent  his  carrying  out  these  instruc- 
tions? Of  course,  we  can  take  the  boy 
off  the  horse  and  put  on  another  jockey, 
but  Blake  does  not  wish  to  do  this. 

"  In  his  waking  moments  Murphy  does 
not  remember  anything  that  has  been  told 
him  while  hypnotized,  and  I  'doubt  if  we 
could  make  Blake  believe  that  there  was 
any  real  danger  in  that  quarter.  Again,  if 
we  allow  him  to  go  in  and  ride  the  race, 
it  is  more  than  possible  that  he  could  be 
made  to  win  or  lose  the  race  by  any  one 
who  had  given  him  orders  while  in  a 


TOO   CLOSE    FOR   COMFORT.  65 

hypnotic  condition,  and  we  also  know  that 
he  would  forget  entirely  that  he  had  re- 
ceived such  orders  after  waking. 

"  Now,  the  difficulty  presents  itself  as  to 
how  we  can  prevent  him  following  out  such 
instructions,  in  case  he  has  received  them. 
We  know  we  cannot  affect  such  suggestions 
by  re-hypnotizing  him,  because  we  do  not 
know  the  exact  circumstances  under  which 
such  directions  were  given.  To  merely 
hypnotize  and  tell  him  he  is  not  to  carry  out 
such  orders  would  have  no  effect  whatever. 
Perhaps  if  we  could  tell  him  that  under 
certain  described  circumstances  he  was  not 
to  carry  out  such  orders  we  might  succeed. 

"  But  my  experience  has  been  that  the 
directions,  as  given,  are  carried  out  by  the 
subject  if,  at  the  time,  the  circumstance 
described,  which  is  to  be  recognized  as  a 
signal  for  such  and  such  action  on  the 
part  of  the  hypnotized  sensitive,  occurs 
and  is  noticed. 


66  TOO    CLOSE   FOR   COMFORT. 

"  For  instance,  if  I  should  hypnotize  a 
young  man,  and  say  that  at  eight  o'clock, 
when  he  hears  the  clock  strike,  he  should 
at  once  go  downstairs  and  get  a  glass  of 
water,  he  would  undoubtedly  do  it  when 
the  clock  struck  eight.  But  if  the  clock 
did  not  strike  eight,  supposing  some  one 
had  removed  the  striker,  and  when  near 
the  hour  some  one  occupied  his  attention 
so  that  he  did  not  notice  the  time,  in  all 
probability  he  would  not  obey  orders.  It 
requires  some  special  occurrence  which 
has  been  described  in  connection  with  the 
act  to  suggest  it  again  to  his  mind. 

"  In  my  opinion,  the  best  we  can  do  is 
to  let  Murphy  ride  the  race,  and  to  take 
all  precautions  possible  to  prevent  any  man 
waving  his  handkerchief  to  Murphy  during 
the  race.  Of  course,  to  have  any  real 
effect  on  the  race,  the  person  waving  his 
handkerchief  as  a  signal  for  Murphy  to 
'  pull '  Emperor  must  do  so  far  enough 


TOO  CLOSE   FOR   COMFORT.  67 

from  the  home  stretch  to  make  it  certain 
that  Emperor  can  be  prevented  from  win- 
ning without  attracting  especial  attention, 
which  could  not  be  done  in  case  Emperor 
was  in  the  lead  if  the  signal  was  given 
close  to  the  Grand  Stand.  We,  therefore, 
must  look  out  for  our  man,  if  such  a  man 
there  be,  some  distance  down  the  race- 
track. 

"  Now,  if  you  will  go  to  the  track  with 
me  to-morrow  we  will  station  ourselves  in 
places  where  we  think  it  likely  that  such  a 
person  would  stand,  and  keep  a  sharp 
watch  for  a  thin,  dark  man  with  a  scar  on 
his  cheek.  Will  you  join  me?" 

I  assured  him  I  would  be  more  than  wil- 
ling to  do  so,  as  I  was  very  much  inter- 
ested in  the  case. 

"Good!  Now,  this  is  my  plan.  I  shall 
take  Mike  Falan  with  me,  and  he  is  worth 
half  a  dozen  men  in  the  case  of  a  row.  I 
have  also  engaged  three  private  detectives 


68  TOO   CLOSE    FOR   COMFORT. 

to  be  on  the  watch  at  the  entrance  to  the 
Grand  Stand,  and  another  at  the  entrance 
to  the  grounds,  while  a  fifth  is  to  station 
himself  at  the  side  of  the  track,  and  do  sen- 
tinel duty  about  the  half-mile  post,  with 
orders  to  report  to  me  the  moment  Simms 
puts  in  an  appearance,  and  to  have  him 
shadowed.  Of  course,  this  elaborate  plot 
may  exist  only  in  my  imagination,  but  if, 
as  I  believe,  there  is  a  carefully  arranged 
scheme  to  beat  Blake's  horse,  we  shall  have 
done  him  a  good  turn,  and  perhaps  saved 
him  a  lot  of  money.  I  must  go  now,  but 
don't  fail  to  meet  me  to-morrow  at  eleven, 
at  the  track.  You  will  find  me  in  front  of 
the  Grand  Stand." 

The  next  morning  when  I  arrived  at  the 
track  I  found  Dr.  Watson  in  conversation 
with  a  powerful-looking  man  whom  he  in- 
troduced to  me  as  Mike  Falan.  We  walked 
slowly  up  the  track  to  a  point  about  a  quar- 
ter of  a  mile  from  the  finish.  There  was  a 


TOO   CLOSE   FOR   COMFORT.  69 

great  crowd  of  people  present,  the  numbers 
had  gone  up  for  the  first  race,  and  most  of 
the  horses  were  already  out  and  "  warming 
up."  Emperor  appeared  to  be  in  splendid 
condition.  As  he  galloped  easily  up  and 
down  in  front  of  the  Grand  Stand  his  great 
muscles  rolled  and  swelled  under  the  shiny 
skin,  and  he  looked  and  acted  like  a  horse 
fit  to  race  for  his  life.  He  was  a  prime 
favorite  at  the  pools  and  was  selling  at  two 
to  one  against  the  field. 

"  I  have  seen  Blake,"  said  Watson,  "  and 
he  is  feeling  confident  that  Emperor  will  win. 
He  is  somewhat  nervous,  of  course,  but  he 
tells  me  the  horse  is  in  first-class  shape,  and 
that  Murphy  is  all  right.  No  signs  of 
Simms  yet  and  the  race  will  be  started  in 
less  than  ten  minutes.  It  begins  to  look  as 
though  I  have  been  frightened  at  a  shadow." 

At  this  moment  a  man  touched  Watson 
on  the  arm  and  whispered  something  to  him 
and  then  moved  quickly  away  through  the 


yo  TOO   CLOSE    FOR    COMFORT. 

crowd.  Watson  started,  and  turning  to  me 
said, 

"  Come  this  way.  Simms  is  here,  he  is 
down  the  track,  below  the  gate." 

He  hurried  away,  Mike  and  I  following, 
and  upon  getting  clear  of  the  crowd  we 
saw  a  man  leaning  against  the  picket  fence 
which  separated  the  track  from  the  carriage 
drive,  watching  the  horses  through  a  small 
field-glass.  As  we  came  up,  Simms,  for  it 
was  he,  glanced  suspiciously  at  us,  but  as 
we  paid  no  attention  to  him  and  talked 
earnestly  together,  apparently  arguing  as  to 
the  relative  merits  of  the  horses,  he  soon 
ceased  to  notice  us  and  turned  again  to  the 
horses. 

Hardly  had  he  done  so  when  he  hur- 
riedly put  the  glass  in  his  pocket,  and  a 
great  shout  from  the  Grand  Stand  and  cries 
of  "  They're  off!  "  told  us  that  the  great  race 
had  commenced. 

We  could  see  the  horses  far   off  on  the 


TOO   CLOSE   FOR   COMFORT.  71 

opposite  side  of  the  track  all  running  in  a 
bunch,  until  they  neared  the  half-mile  flag, 
when  two  were  seen  to  be  well  in  advance 
of  the  others.  As  they  swung  round  the 
curve  we  could  see  the  red  cap  worn  by 
Murphy  flashing  in  the  sun,  and  we  knew 
that  Emperor  was  leading.  But  another 
horse,  a  deep  bay,  the  jockey  dressed 
completely  in  blue,  was  very  close  to  him. 
On  they  came,  and  Watson  and  Mike 
edged  closer  and  closer  to  Simms,  whose 
whole  attention  was  fixed  on  the  race. 
His  face  was  flushed,  and  he  was  actually 
dancing  with  excitement.  We  watched 
him  as  a  cat  watches  a  mouse,  and  it  was 
very  lucky  for  Blake  that  we  did  so.  The 
horses  were  now  quite  near  us,  and  we 
could  see  Murphy  plainly,  and  noted  how 
white  and  drawn  his  face  looked.  Sud- 
denly Simms  pulled  a  large  white  hand- 
kerchief from  his  pocket,  but  as  he  did  so 
the  doctor  snatched  it  from  his  hand  and 


72  TOO    CLOSE    FOR    COMFORT. 

at  the  same  instant  Mike  seized  him  in  his 
powerful  arms,  and  dragged  him  from  the 
fence. 

Mad  with  surprise  and  rage,  he  struggled 
and  kicked  like  a  wild  animal.  "Damn 
you,"  he  yelled,  "  let  me  go  ;  let  go,  I 
say!  What  in  hell  do  you  mean  ?" 

"  Let  him  go,  Mike,"  said  the  doctor. 
Mike  pushed  Simms  from  him,  and  he 
staggered  back  against  the  fence.  The 
man  was  crazy  with  rage,  and  I  believe 
for  the  moment  he  was  really  insane.  He 
half  crouched  as  if  to  spring  at  us,  snarling 
and  showing  his  teeth  like  a  savage  dog, 
then  his  hand  went  to  his  hip  pocket. 

"  I  wouldn't  try  that  if  I  were  you, 
Simms,"  said  Watson  quietly.  "  You  will 
get  the  worst  of  it  if  you  do." 

Watson's  right  hand  was  in  the  pocket  of 
his  sack-coat,  and  his  eyes  said,  "  I'll  shoot," 
as  plainly  as  if  he  had  told  Simms  so  in  so 
many  words. 


TOO   CLOSE    FOR   COMFORT.  73 

"  See  here,  you,"  cried  Mike,  "  if  you  pull 
a  gun  I'll  smash  your  jaw  !  " 

Simms  looked  from  one  to  the  other  of 
us,  with  the  expression  of  a  madman.  His 
face  was  ghastly  white,  and  the  scar  on  his 
cheek  stood  out  livid,  in  contrast  with  the 
white  skin.  I  thought  for  a  moment  he  was 
about  to  draw  his  revolver,  but  suddenly  he 
turned  and  ran  toward  the  crowd,  and  in  a 
moment  was  lost  to  our  view. 

The  shouting  and  cheering  still  kept  up, 
and,  as  we  hurried  toward  the  Grand  Stand, 
Watson  asked  a  man  which  horse  had  won. 

"  Emperor,  by  a  length,  —  a  great  race  !  " 

We  found  Blake  in  front  of  the  stand 
He  came  to  us  and  shook  hands.  His  face 
was  beaming  with  the  joy  of  success. 

"  Do  you  know,"  he  said,  "  I  do  believe 
that  something  is  the  matter  with  Murphy. 
He  was  as  pale  as  a  ghost  after  the  race. 
He  said  he  could  remember  nothing  about 
it  until  he  found  himself  in  the  home  stretch 


74  TOO    CLOSE    FOR    COMFORT. 

running  neck  and  neck  with  Nettie  B. 
Then  he  seemed  to  wake  from  a  dream,  and 
sat  down  and  rode  Emperor  for  all  he  was 
worth.  You  know  the  rest.  He  won  out 
all  right,  but  I  tell  you  it  was  a  confounded 
sight  too  close  for  comfort." 


THE   STRANGE   POWDER  OF 
THE   JOU  JOU   PRIESTS. 


DR.  WATSON  carefully  opened  the 
little  antique  silver  box,  which  was 
about  the  size  and  shape  of  an  ordinary 
watch,  and  showed  that  it  contained  a 
gray  powder  and  a  little  gold  measure 
resembling  a  miniature  thimble.  It  was 
evidently  very  old,  the  cover  being  worn 
smooth  in  many  places,  nearly  effacing  the 
peculiar  hieroglyphics  with  which  it  had 
once  been  engraved. 

"  I  consider  this,"  he  said,  "  my  chef- 
(Toeuvre,  my  '  star  exhibit,'  as  it  were.  The 
powder  possesses  such  wonderful  properties, 
and  is  so  unlike  any  known  drug,  that  I 
hesitate  to  describe  its  effects.  That  it  is 
75 


76  THE    STRANGE    POWDER   OF 

a  powerful  poison  there  can  be  no  doubt, 
but  when  taken  in  small  doses  it  is  appar- 
ently harmless  enough." 

"  What  is  its  history  ?  "  asked  Dr.  Far- 
rington. 

"  I  picked  it  up  in  London.  Got  it  from 
Burridge,  the  explorer,  who  had  just  re- 
turned from  a  year's  trip  in  the  interior  of 
West  Africa.  He  went  into  Benin  City 
with  the  English  when  they  cleaned  out  the 
town.  Burridge  says  he  took  it  from  a  dead 
Jou  Jou  priest,  and  he  made  me  pay  a  pretty 
stiff  price  for  it.  It  is  a  wonderful  drug, 
entirely  unknown  outside  of  Africa.  Bur- 
ridge thinks  it  is  made  from  the  leaves  of 
some  plant;  but  its  preparation  is  a  secret 
of  the  priests  of  Jou  Jou. 

"  Now,  I  propose  that  we  each  take  a 
small  quantity  of  the  powder  to-night,  and 
then  dine  together  to-morrow  evening  and 
compare  notes.  I  may  as  well  tell  you  now, 
it  produces  strange  hallucinations.  I  tried 


THE  JOU  JOU   PRIESTS.  77 

it  once  myself,  and  my  experience  on  that 
occasion  was,  to  say  the  least,  peculiar; 
therefore  I  am  more  than  anxious  to  try  it 
again,  and  compare  notes  with  you  after- 
wards, and  I  think  I  can  promise  you  a  new 
and  novel  experience." 

Farrington  and  Forster  were  perfectly 
willing  to  try  the  experiment  which  Watson 
hinted  promised  such  interesting  results,  and 
it  was  agreed  that  each  should  take  a  dose 
of  the  powder  before  retiring,  and  meet 
together  the  next  evening. 

Promptly  at  the  time  appointed,  the  three 
men  met  in  Watson's  study,  and  after  cigars 
had  been  lighted  Watson  asked  Farrington 
to  be  the  first  to  relate  his  experience, 
whereupon  the  Doctor  drew  from  his  pocket 
several  pages  of  closely  written  manuscript, 
and  began  as  follows: 


AN    AZTEC    MUMMY. 


[DR.   FARRINGTON'S   STORY.] 

I  WAS  standing  in  a  museum  looking  at 
a  case  of  mummies.  One  of  them  was 
marked  "  Mummy  of  an  Aztec,  found  in  a 
Cliff  Dwelling,"  and  it  interested  me  very 
much.  In  size  it  was  that  of  a  small  man, 
and  was  in  a  fine  state  of  preservation,  with 
the  exception  that  the  bones  of  the  legs 
were  exposed,  and  more  or  less  disinte- 
grated, in  some  places.  The  hands,  even  to 
the  finger  nails,  were  perfect,  however,  and 
there  was  a  silver  ring  on  the  index  finger. 
One  hand  grasped  a  large  stone  axe  —  the 
handle  being  modern.  The  right  hand 
rested  across  the  chest,  clasping  a  necklace 
of  silver  wire. 

78 


AN   AZTEC   MUMMY. 


79 


"Interesting  specimen,  is  it  not?"  said  a 
voice  at  my  side. 

"  Quite  so,"  I  replied.  «  But  I  doubt  if 
it  is  really  an  Aztec  mummy." 

"  What  makes  you  think  that  ?  "  asked 
the  voice  sharply. 

"Because  I  don't  believe  the  Aztecs 
buried  their  dead  in  Cliff  Dwellings.  How- 
ever, it  is  an  interesting  mummy,  and  in  a 
wonderful  state  of  preservation." 

I  was  so  interested  in  examining  the 
mummy  that  I  had  spoken  without  turning 
my  head.  Now,  however,  I  looked  up  and 
saw  a  tall,  gaunt  figure  of  a  man  dressed  in 
a  suit  of  corduroy,  and  wearing  a  broad- 
brimmed  hat,  or  sombrero,  such  as  is  gen- 
erally worn  on  the  Western  plains. 

"  Well,"  he  remarked,  "  in  my  opinion,  it 
is  a  pretty  good  mummy.  I  made  it  my- 
self, and  ought  to  know." 

"  Excuse  me,  what  did  you  say  ?  "  I  asked, 
thinking  I  had  not  understood  him  aright. 


8o  AN   AZTEC   MUMMY. 

"  I  said  that  was  one  of  my  mummies." 

"What  do  you  mean  by  that,  sir?"  I 
asked. 

"You  will  understand  when  I.  tell  you  I 
was  a  dealer  in  curiosities,  and  during  my 
time  I  furnished  museums  with  a  great 
many  interesting  and  valuable  specimens  ; 
when  trade  was  slow,  I  occasionally  helped 
nature  a  little,  but  that  is  all  over  now." 

"Have  you  given  up  the  business?"  I 
asked. 

"Had  to;  but  perhaps  you  do  not  know 
that  I  am  dead,"  answered  my  companion. 
"  Fell  from  a  cliff  last  year  and  broke  my 
neck." 

"Did  you,  indeed?"  I  answered,  trying  to 
appear  interested. 

"  That's  what  I  did.  But  let  me  tell  you 
about  that  mummy.  There  was  a  scientific 
chap  who  came  to  our  place  and  wanted  to 
buy  Aztec  relics.  Me  and  my  partner  made 
a  trade  with  him  and  sold  him  a  lot  of 


AN   AZTEC   MUMMY.  8 1 

stuff;  but  he  was  very  anxious  to  be  taken 
where  he  could  dig  some  up  for  himself, 
*  to  be  sure  of  the  authenticity  and  antiquity 
of  the  relics.'  Well,  me  and  my  pard  fig- 
ured up  that  it  might  be  to  our  advantage 
to  take  him  to  a  good  Cliff  Dwelling,  and 
we  arranged  that  he  should  pay  us  so  much 
for  everything  he  dug  up.  If  he  found  a 
mummy  we  got  one  hundred  dollars;  if 
stone  hatchets  and  axes,  two  dollars  each; 
arrow-heads,  ten  cents  each;  for  stone 
matats  and  grinders,  one  dollar  each,  taking 
them  as  they  came;  and  whole  pottery,  five 
dollars." 

"  Where  did  you  find  the  mummy?  Did 
you  know  of  the  cave  ?  "  I  asked. 

"  Well,  we  knew  where  there  were  lots  of 
caves,  and  where  there  were  Indian  grave- 
yards. With  the  aid  of  a  little  stain  and 
judicious  arrangement  of  a  body  we  pre- 
pared a  fine  Aztec  mummy.  Of  course  we 
used  the  body  of  an  Indian,  one  who  had 


82  AN   AZTEC   MUMMY. 

been  dead  for  a  long  time  and  was  dried  up 
and  crumbly.  My  partner  was  a  clever 
chap,  and  he  fixed  up  the  axe  and  the  silver 
necklace,  and  we  took  the  outfit  and  started 
for  the  Verde  Canon.  We  picked  out  a 
good-sized  cave,  and  dug  a  hole  in  the  floor, 
in  which  we  carefully  placed  the  mummy 
and  covered  him  up  with  dry  dust;  then  we 
wet  the  clay  over  him,  leaving  the  floor 
hard  and  smooth  as  before.  We  also  buried 
about  fifty  axes  and  two  or  three  hundred 
arrow-heads,  and  half  a  dozen  nice  speci- 
mens of  Indian  pottery,  which  we  burned 
up  good  and  black. 

"  After  we  had  '  salted '  the  cave  to  our 
satisfaction,  we  partly  sealed  up  the  en- 
trance and  returned  to  Flagstaff." 

"Was  that  acting  quite  fair  ?  " 

"Fair?  Why,  how  do  you  think  that 
poor  man  would  have  felt  if  he  had  come  all 
the  way  out  to  Arizona,  and  gone  to  all  the 
expense  of  his  car-fare  and  outfit,  and  then 


AN   AZTEC   MUMMY.  83 

found  nothing?  It  was  philanthropy,  my 
dear  sir,  the  height  of  philanthropy." 
"Was  he  pleased  with  the  mummy?" 
"Pleased?  Why,  bless  your  dear,  inno- 
cent soul,  he  screamed  with  joy  like  a 
child,  when  we  accidentally  discovered  a 
piece  of  a  toe  while  digging  in  the  bottom 
of  the  cave  I  He  dropped  on  his  knees  and 
removed  every  particle  of  dirt  with  his 
hands,  and  almost  cried  over  it.  He  carried 
on  so  that  my  partner  nearly  gave  us  away. 
He  was  a  chump  about  some  things  :  if 
anything  pleased  him,  he  would  laugh, 
and  his  laugh  sounded  like  the  bray  of  a 
jackass. 

"  Well,  sir,  when  this  scientific  chap  got 
down  on  his  knees,  and  commenced  to  paw 
the  earth  away  from  the  fake  mummy,  my 
partner  began  to  gurgle.  I  knew  what  was 
coming  and  punched  him  in  the  ribs,  but  it 
did  no  good.  The  scientific  chap  looked 
up  and  asked  what  was  the  matter. 


84  AN   AZTEC    MUMMY. 

"  '  Matter?  '  shouted  my  pard,  and  then  he 
roared  and  yelled  and  howled. 

"A  look  of  doubt  and  annoyance  came 
into  our  victim's  eyes;  but  pard  saved  him- 
self just  in  time. 

"'Look!'  he  yelled  between  his  parox- 
ysms of  laughter,  ( look  at  that  buzzard  over 
there!  I'm  damned  if  he  ain't  the  funniest 
buzzard  I  ever  saw  in  my  life,'  and  then  he 
roared  and  yelled  and  jumped  about. 
'Look  at  him,'  he  laughed;  'see  him  fly! 
did  you  ever  see  anything  so  funny?' 

"  I  am  not  sure  but  what  the  scientist 
thought  he  was  crazy,  but  anyhow,  he  didn't 
catch  on  to  what  he  was  laughing  at,  and 
pretty  soon  went  on  with  his  digging.  We 
stayed  there  three  days  and  dug  the  whole 
place  up  and  took  back  with  us  a  basket 
full  of  stone  axes,  arrow-heads,  three  large 
prehistoric  vases,  and  the  mummy.  He 
drove  the  wagon  himself  every  step  of  the 
way,  for  fear  something  would  get  broken, 


AN   AZTEC   MUMMY.  85 

and  when  we  got  to  Flagstaff  he  spent  two 
days  packing  the  relics." 

"  Do  you  consider  that  sort  of  thing  quite 
honorable  ?  "  I  asked. 

"  Honorable?  What  is  that  you  say,  you 
squint-eyed  dude  ?  Now,  my  boy,  don't  get 
fresh  with  me  just  because  I  am  dead  and 
can't  jump  you." 

I  hastened  to  pacify  him. 

"Well,  that's  all  right,  but  if  you  had 
said  that  to  me  last  year  when  I  was  alive 
I  would  have  marked  squares  all  over  your 
body  with  a  piece  of  chalk  and  then  played 
hop-scotch  on  you." 

"  I  meant  no  offence,"  I  said  humbly. 

"  Maybe  you  didn't.  But  just  you  make 
another  break  like  that,  and  I  won't  forget 
it;  you  will  have  to  die  sometime,  and 
then,  —  oh,  mamma!" 

"  Is  your  partner  dead  ?  "  I  asked. 

"  No,  Jim  is  not  dead  by  a  long  shot.  I 
went  down  to  see  him  last  winter  at  his 


86  AN    AZTEC    MUMMY. 

place  in  California,  where  he  has  opened  up 
a  new  store.  He  has  a  good  tourist  trade 
—  made  a  lot  of  money  this  year  out  of 
mermaids  and  sea-devils  —  there  was  a  run/ 
on  sea-devils  this  winter.  He  makes  them 
out  of  fishes. 

u  The  mermaids  he  makes  out  of  fishes' 
tails  and  Indian  children  —  robs  the  grave- 
yards, you  know.  Some  of  them  are  really 
fine  and  artistic.  I  tell  you  he  is  an  artist  in 
his  line. 

"  He  has  a  branch  store  still  somewhere 
in  New  Mexico,  and  made  a  stack  of  money 
last  winter  in  Navajo  blankets  and  scalp- 
trimmed  Indian  arms  and  shields.  It  is  the 
scalp  trimming  which  catches  the  tourist. 
He  gets  most  of  his  scalps  from  California, 
from  hospitals  there;  but  when  he  is  short, 
horse  hair  does  pretty  well,  especially  for 
old  Indian  scalps. 

"  And  then,  Navajo  blankets.  Holy 
smoke,  a  gold  mine  isn't  in  it!  They  make 


AN   AZTEC   MUMMY.  87 

them  of  Germantown  wool  and  aniline 
dyes,  and  they  cost  at  the  factory  all  the 
way  from  six  bits  to  $10,  and  sell  to  the 
tourist  for  various  prices  ;  sometimes  as 
high  as  $75  or  $80.  Oh,  I  tell  you  he 
is  shrewd;  some  day  he  will  be  worth  a 
million! 

"  Sometimes  a  chap  goes  into  his  shop 
and  poses  as  an  expert  —  those  are  the  kind 
of  jays  that  fill  Jim's  soul  with  joy.  The 
fellow  will  pull  over  a  pile  of  blankets,  and 
after  looking  at  them  wisely,  will  say, 
"  Haven't  you  got  any  real  good  blankets  ? 
These  are  Germantown  wool  and  mineral 
dyes.' 

"  Then  Jim  will  say  —  '  Ah,  I  see  you 
know  something  about  blankets.' 

" '  Oh,  yes  ;  a  little,'  answers  the  expert. 

"'  The  fine  old-style  blankets  are  mighty 
hard  to  get  now,'  remarks  Jim. 

" ( I  know  they  are,'  remarks  the  wise 
tourist,  '  but  still  they  are  to  be  had  some- 


88  AN   AZTEC   MUMMY. 

times,  are  they  not?  Come,  now,  haven't 
you  got  something  choice  hidden  away?' 

"  Then  Jim  will  look  about,  as  though 
fearful  that  somebody  might  see  him,  and 
will  steal  softly  into  a  back  room  and  pull 
from  beneath  his  bed  a  good  cheap  blanket 
—  worth  about  $3  —  and  spread  it  out  lov- 
ingly in  front  of  the  tourist. 

" '  There,'  he  whispers  ;  <  look  at  that  ; 
that  is  not  for  sale.  I  am  keeping  that  for 
myself,  but  I  thought  you  would  like  to  see 
it,  as  it  is  very  evident  you  know  a  good 
deal  about  blankets  ;  isn't  it  a  beauty  ? ' 

"  Then  the  tourist  t  bites,'  and  asks  him 
what  it  is  worth,  and  admires  it,  agrees  with 
him  as  to  the  splendid  old  dyes  and  fine 
preservation  of  the  native  wool  prepared  in 
the  manner  of  the  old  Navajo,  speaks  of  its 
great  rarity,  and  at  last  ends  by  asking  Jim 
what  he  will  take  for  it,  and  usually  carries 
it  away  with  him,  having  paid  three  or  four 
times  the  value  of  a  really  good  blanket. 


AN   AZTEC   MUMMY.  89 

"I've  seen  Jim  pull  their  legs  so  hard 
they'd  pretty  near  limp  when  they  went  out. 
Ah,  those  were  happy  days  !  " 

The  departed  heaved  a  deep  sigh,  and 
gazed  silently  at  his  handiwork. 

"  Well,"  he  said,  «  I  must  be  going  5  I 
have  a  lot  of  things  I  want  to  do  before 
morning,  but  hope  to  run  across  you  some- 
time again.  Glad  you  like  the  mummy.  I 
forgot  to  mention  that  most  of  the  teeth 
were  gone  when  we  first  got  it,  and  Jim  put 
in  a  fine  new  set,  and  improved  it  a  whole 
lot." 

I  glanced  at  the  mummy,  and  when  I 
looked  up  again,  my  companion  had  disap- 
peared. 


A  LESSON   IN   CHEMISTRY. 


[MR.   FORSTER'S   STORY.] 

I  TOOK  the  powder  as  agreed,  and  sat 
down  to  read  the  evening  paper  before 
retiring,  with  the  result  that  I  did  not 
retire  at  all.  I  became  much  interested  in 
an  article  on  new  explosives  with  which  the 
Government  has  been  lately  experimenting, 
and  had  nearly  finished  it,  when  I  heard  a 
voice  say  to  me,  "  Interesting  subject,  isn't 
it?" 

I  turned,  and  saw  seated  on  my  lounge 
a  peculiar-looking  man:  his  clothes  seemed 
to  be  all  run  in  together.  You  could  make 
out  the  outlines  of  the  man,  but  the  figure 
was  not  clear  ;  sort  of  foggy,  you  know. 
What  surprised  me  most  was  that  I  could 
90 


A   LESSON   IN   CHEMISTRY.  91 

look  right  through  him  and  see  that  back  of 
the  lounge. 

I  said  to  myself,  "  Is  this  a  dream  or  the 
effect  of  the  powder  I  have  taken?"  and  I 
pinched  my  leg,  and  rubbed  my  eyes,  but 
although  I  seemed  to  be  perfectly  wide 
awake,  the  shape  did  not  disappear. 

"  What  did  you  say?"  I  asked. 

"  I  remarked  that  the  subject  of  high 
explosives  was  decidedly  interesting,"  an- 
swered the  shape.  "  I  was  a  chemist  when 
alive,  but  it  makes  me  sad  to  think  how  very 
little  I  really  knew.  Chemistry,  as  well  as 
other  branches  of  science,  has  made  great 
strides  during  the  past  generation,  since  my 
day,  but  even  now  they  really  know  very 
little." 

"  But,"  I  answered,  "  it  seems  to  me  the 
high  explosives  which  we  now  have  are 
sufficiently  powerful  if  we  knew  how  to 
use  them  with  safety." 

"That's      it,"      answered      the       shape. 


92  A    LESSON    IN    CHEMISTRY. 

"  Now,  I  have  a  couple  of  hours  to  spare, 
and,  if  it  would  interest  you,  and  you  care 
to  come  over  to  my  laboratory,  I  will  be 
happy  to  give  you  one  or  two  points  which 
may  prove  of  value  to  you  —  I  say  to  my 
laboratory,  but  it  really  is  not  mine  ;  I  use 
any  laboratory  that  is  handiest,  and  I  know 
most  of  the  good  ones  in  the  city.  You 
see,  I  do  not  need  to  have  a  key  to  enter  a 
room  ;  that  is  one  of  the  great  advantages 
we  have,  as  you  will  discover  one  of  these 
days.  Just  now  I  can  get  you  in  very  well 
because  the  owner  of  the  laboratory  to 
which  we  will  go  is  out  of  town.  I  will  go 
in  first  and  unlock  the  door  for  you." 

I  told  him  that  I  should  be  most  happy 
to  accept  his  invitation  5  it  seemed  the  most 
natural  thing  in  the  world  to  be  conversing 
with  a  ghost  and  to  have  him  invite  me 
to  go  to  somebody's  laboratory  and  use  up 
his  chemicals.  It  never  occurred  to  me 
that  it  might  not  be  considered  quite  good 


A   LESSON    IN   CHEMISTRY.  93 

form.  We  went  out  of  my  rooms  and 
downstairs,  the  shadow  floating  alongside 
of  me  in  the  most  friendly  manner  possible. 
I  could  see  by  the  position  of  his  body  that 
he  had  hold  of  my  arm,  but  his  fingers  did 
not  show  on  my  coat-sleeve. 

We  went  up  town  for  perhaps  half  a  mile, 
and  entered  a  large  brick  building  in  which 
I  noted  were  various  studios.  It  was  dark, 
but  going  up  three  flights  of  stairs  my  guide 
opened  a  door  and  ushered  me  into  a  large 
and  extensively  furnished  laboratory,  evi- 
dently belonging  to  some  scientific  man  of 
means  and  experience.  The  ghost  turned 
the  button  of  the  electric  light,  and  then 
motioned  me  to  a  seat. 

"  My  time,"  he  said,  "  is  somewhat  lim- 
ited, because  I  have  an  appointment  with  a 
lady  at  twelve,  but  I  will  show  you  what  a 
high  explosive  really  is,  and  then  if  we  have 
time  we  will  talk  of  something  else.  The 
difficulty  about  high  explosives  is  not  in 


94 


A   LESSON    IN    CHEMISTRY. 


making  them,  but  in  using  them  after  they 
are  made;  you  create  a  gigantic  power 
which  you  do  not  know  how  to  handle. 

"  The  rather  modern  discovery  of  how  to 
make  liquid  air  has  simplified  matters  a 
good  deal.  When  you  can  make  liquid 
hydrogen  in  quantities  you  will  have  a  still 
better  agent  for  many  purposes.  Now,  let 
us  take  a  little  of  this  liquid  air.  You  see 
it  pours  like  water.  As  I  happen  to  know, 
our  absent  host  has  nearly  two  gallons  of 
it,  or  had  this  afternoon;  some  of  it  has 
evaporated,  but,  as  you  see,  there  is  still 
more  than  a  gallon  left,  and  we  will  not 
steal  much,  as  all  we  want  for  our  experi- 
ment to  illustrate  to  you  the  greatest  explo- 
sive which  can  be  manufactured  is  about 
as  much  liquid  air  as  you  can  hold  in  a 
thimble." 

"Do  you  propose  to  try  your  explosive 
here,  Mr."  —  I  hesitated.  "  By  the  way, 
what  is  your  name  ?  " 


A   LESSON    IN   CHEMISTRY.  95 

"  Oh,  call  me  any  old  name;  it  does  not 
matter!" 

"  Mr.  Spook,  shall  we  say?  " 

"Ahem!  a  little  personal,  perhaps,  but  it 
will  do  as  well  as  another.  Now,  as  I  was 
saying,  I  will  show  you  how  to  make  the 
most  powerful  explosive  that  was  ever  in- 
vented." 

It  is  possible  that  I  did  not  show  as  much 
interest  and  enthusiasm  as  he  expected,  and 
to  tell  the  truth  I  was  a  little  nervous. 
Spooks  do  not  have  the  same  interest  in 
being  careful  in  their  experiments  —  an 
accident  or  two  is  of  little  consequence  to 
them,  but  might  be  decidedly  disagreeable 
to  me.  I  may  have  shown  something  of 
what  I  was  thinking  in  my  manner,  for 
Spook  looked  at  me  keenly. 

"What  is  the  matter?  You  do  not  ap- 
pear interested." 

"  On  the  contrary,"  I  answered,  "  I  am 
deeply  so,  but  do  we  not  run  considerable 


96  A    LESSON    IN    CHEMISTRY. 

risk  in  trying  such  experiments  in  a  labora- 
tory without  the  consent  of  its  owner?  " 

"  Not  at  all,  not  at  all.  I  will  use  a  very 
small  amount  of  the  explosive,  and  there 
will  be  no  damage  done." 

"  Have  you  attempted  to  make  it  before, 
Mr.  Spook?"  I  ventured. 

"  Oh,  yes,  last  week;  that  was  a  mistake  — 
you  see  now  I  know  all  about  it,  I  didn't 
then  ;  the  explosion  was  something  awful  — 
it  blew  the  building  pretty  much  all  to 
pieces.  If  I  had  been  alive  I  don't  believe 
you  could  have  found  a  piece  of  me  as  large 
as  your  finger  —  they  called  it  spontaneous 
combustion;  however,  we  won't  have  any- 
thing of  that  kind  to-night." 

"Please  don't,"  I  answered. 

"  No,  I  promise  you.  Now  we  will  take 
a  little  of  this  red  phosphorus  —  ordinary 
phosphorus  will  not  answer — and  pour  a 
little  liquid  air  on  it,  stirring  it  gently,  as  you 
see.  Now,  if  I  should  let  that  dry  it  would 


A    LESSON    IN   CHEMISTRY. 


97 


explode  at  the  slightest  touch;  but  we  do  not 
want  that,  and  we  wish  to  increase  its  power, 
so  we  add  a  little  chloride  of  potassium  ; 
now  watch  it  dry  —  see  the  color  change  to 
a  light  red-brown.  There,  if  you  should 
strike  that  or  put  fire  to  it,  it  would  wreck 
this  building  as  completely  as  if  you  had 
exploded  fifty  pounds  of  dynamite  in  it." 

I  drew  away  from  the  table  instinctively. 

"  Have  no  fear,  I  will  not  explode  it. 
Now  watch  me  closely.  I  will  ignite  a 
minute  quantity,  about  as  much  as  would 
make  the  head  of  a  small  black  pin  or  a 
No.  4  bird-shot.  See,  the  rest  we  will 
put  in  this  pail  of  water.  There  —  now 
all  is  ready  —  here  goes!" 

He  lit  a  match  and  touched  the  little 
brown  dot  —  a  tremendous  explosion  fol- 
lowed and  the  wooden  table  was  split  into 
pieces.  The  sound  was  so  terrific  and  the 
shock  so  unexpected  that  I  was  dizzy  and 
frightened. 


98  A    LESSON    IN    CHEMISTRY. 

"  Great  heavens  !  "  I  exclaimed,  "  you 
have  broken  everything  in  the  laboratory  !  " 

"  No,"  replied  the  ghost  rather  shame- 
facedly, "  not  so  bad  as  that,  but  Tm  afraid 
that  I  have  ruined  the  table  and  cracked  a 
few  things  ;  however,  I  will  be  more  careful 
next  time:  it  is  even  more  powerful  than  I 
thought.  What  do  you  suppose  would  be 
the  effect  on  a  warship  if  struck  with  a' 
shell  containing  one  hundred  pounds  of  that 
stuff  ?  " 

I  answered  that  she  would  be  destroyed. 

"Destroyed?  I  should  say  she  would; 
the  largest  battleship  would  be  blown  to 
atoms." 

The  spook  glanced  at  an  old-fashioned 
Dutch  clock  in  the  corner  of  the  labora- 
tory. 

"  Fine  clock  that ;  glad  I  didn't  break  it 
with  our  little  racket  just  now.  I  see  I 
have  nearly  an  hour  to  spare.  Is  there  any 
experiment  you  would  like  to  try  ?  " 


A    LESSON    IN    CHEMISTRY.  99 

I  said  anything  would  interest  me,  but 
that  I  didn't  care  for  any  more  explosives. 

"  I  suppose  you  know  how  to  make  dia- 
monds, don't  you  ?  " 

I  answered  that  for  years  men  had  tried 
to  manufacture  diamonds,  but  practically 
without  success;  that  as  far  as  I  was  aware 
they  had  only  succeeded  in  making  them  so 
small  as  to  be  practically  of  no  use  commer- 
cially, and  the  expense  of  the  manufacture 
was  far  in  excess  of  their  value. 

"That's  all  right,"  answered  the  spook  ; 
"  but  really  it  is  a  very  simple  matter. 
Here  ;  I  will  make  a  diamond  for  you."  He 
walked  across  the  room  to  the  fireplace,  and 
taking  from  the  grate  a  lump  of  coal  about 
the  size  of  a  billiard  ball,  he  laid  it  upon  the 
table. 

"  This,"  he  said,  "  is  nearly  pure  carbon, 
and  as  you  are  well  aware  it  is  practically 
what  a  diamond  is.  Now,  I  will  illustrate 
to  you  how  you  may  make  a  diamond  from 


100  A   LESSON    IN   CHEMISTRY. 

this  piece  of  coal,  which  will  be  as  good  as 
any  diamond  ever  found  in  the  mines.  AVe 
will  manufacture  it  instead  of  letting  nature 
do  it. 

"  We  will  first  place  it  in  this  glass  bowl, 
and  pour  over  it  sufficient  liquid  air  to 
cover  it  completely.  We  will  let  it  remain 
until  it  is  thoroughly  cold,  say,  at  least  200° 
below  zero;  there  —  now  all  we  have  to  do 
is  to  heat  it  and  then  subject  it  to  a  pow- 
erful— Great  Gee  Hosiphat!  Five  min- 
utes to  twelve  !  I  must  go  —  appointment 
with  a  lady  at  twelve.  But  I  say,  old 
fellow,  just  hold  it  under  the  blowpipe  and 
get  it  hot  —  just  as  hot  as  you  can;  I  will 
be  back  soon  —  ta-ta."  His  last  words 
came  to  me  faintly  through  the  window  — 
he  had  already  floated  out. 

I  took  the  queer-colored  piece  of  coal, 
and  began  heating  it  under  the  blowpipe. 
It  did  not  burn,  as  I  thought  it  would,  but 
turned  red  and  then  white;  gradually  it 


A    LESSON    IN    CHEMISTRY.  loi 

seemed  to  grow  larger  and  larger  and 
brighter  and  brighter  until  I  opened  my 
eyes  and  found  myself  in  bed  with  the  sun 
shining  full  upon  me  through  the  open 
window. 


AN    INTERESTING    GHOST. 


[DR.   WATSON'S   STORY.] 

IT  is  with  the  greatest  difficulty,  (said 
Dr.  Watson),  that  I  force  myself  to 
believe  that  what  I  am  about  to  relate  to 
you  did  not  actually  happen.  It  seemed  to 
me  that  I  was  as  wide-awake  as  I  am  at  this 
present  moment,  and  impossible  that  the 
strange  series  of  incidents  could  be  due  en- 
tirely to  mental  disturbances.  I  went  home 
and  went  to  bed,  after  first  taking  the  pow- 
der, and  I  think  I  went  to  sleep.  How  long 
I  slept  I  do  not  know,  but  I  was  startled  at 
finding  myself  floating  about  the  room  with 
much  the  same  feeling  as  one  has  when 
floating  in  water,  only  it  was  without  effort. 
My  motion  seemed  to  be  governed  entirely 


AN   INTERESTING   GHOST.  103 

by  my  will,  —  if  I  glanced  at  anything  in 
the  room  I  would  float  towards  it.  Imagine 
my  astonishment  at  seeing  my  body  lying  in 
the  bed  apparently  sound  asleep;  you  will  ad- 
mit the  sensation  was  novel,  to  say  the  least. 

After  floating  around  the  room  two  or 
three  times  enjoying  the  peculiar  sensation, 
I  began  to  wonder  what  they  had  been 
doing  at  the  hospital  during  my  absence. 
Immediately  I  found  myself  in  the  hospi- 
tal ward.  Dr.  Ford  and  two  nurses  were 
standing  by  a  cot  at  the  north  end,  and 
glancing  at  the  chart  on  the  table  I  saw  the 
patient  was  seriously  ill. 

"  Moribund,"  said  a  voice. 

"  I'm  afraid  so,"  I  answered.  I  turned 
and  saw  an  elderly  gentleman,  dressed  in 
the  costume  of  the  last  century,  floating 
beside  me. 

"Sad,  is  it  not?  People  still  die,  I  see, 
in  spite  of  the  wonderful  advance  in  the 
science  of  medicine  since  my  day." 


io4 


AN    INTERESTING    GHOST. 


"  Were  you  a  doctor  when  alive,"  I 
asked. 

"  Well,  I  was  called  one,  and  received 
the  regular  license  to  kill  or  cure.  I  regret 
to  say  that  I  have  since  learned  that  I  killed 
a  great  many  more  than  I  cured.  The 
trouble  is,  after  you  are  dead  your  patients 
know  this  as  well  as  you  do  and  say  unkind 
things;  even  to-night  I  received  word  from 
a  former  patient  of  mine,  and  a  ghost  who 
ought  to  know  better,  to  the  effect  that  he 
intended  to  hunt  me  up  and  punch  my 
head.  I  treated  him  for  renal  colic  and 
he  died  of  appendicitis." 

"  What  sort  of  a  death  certificate  did  you 
give  ?  "  I  asked. 

"  Heart  disease,  and  let  me  tell  you  that 
was  a  great  deal  nearer  to  it  than  some  of 
you  chaps  get  nowadays." 

"  You  are  not  complimentary,"  I  said 
coldly. 

"Perhaps  not;  but  if  you  think  my  criti- 


AN    INTERESTING   GHOST. 


105 


cisms  harsh  and  uncalled  for,  let  us  get  down 
to  cold  facts.  Did  it  ever  occur  to  you 
how  very  few  people  live  to  be  even  one 
hundred  and  twenty-five  years  old?  You 
surely  will  admit  that  there  is  no  reason 
why  a  man  should  not  live  to  that  age, 
barring  accidents.  We  know  that  in  Bible 
times  there  were  lots  of  old  fellows  who 
passed  their  three  hundredth  birthday,  and 
a  chap  named  Methuselah  claimed  to  be 
nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine  years  old." 

"  Nine  hundred  and  sixty-nine,  was  it 
not  ?  "  I  asked. 

"  Perhaps  you  are  right,  but  sixty-nine 
or  ninety-nine.  I  am  inclined  to  be  a 
little  sceptical  about  that  record  myself; 
there  is  one  thing  in  its  favor,  however, 
and  that  is,  that  he  made  it  an  even  nine 
hundred  and  ninety-nine,  and  not  one  thou- 
sand. Of  course,  you  know  there  are  plenty 
of  people  living  to-day  who  are  over  one 
hundred  years  old,  and  some  who  have 


106  AN    INTERESTING   GHOST. 

reached  the  very  satisfactory  age  of  one 
hundred  and  twenty-five;  most  of  them, 
however,  live  in  Bulgaria,  Mexico,  or  some 
out-of-the-way  place,  and  are  so  poor  that 
they  have  to  live  abstemiously." 

"  Then  you  consider  the  secret  of  lon- 
gevity to  be  a  matter  of  diet  ?  "  said  I. 

"Partly  that,  and  partly  proper  care  of 
the  nervous  system  ;  but  come  downstairs, 
and  let  us  have  a  cigarette  ;  I  am  dying 
for  a  smoke." 

We  floated  down  to  the  office,  which 
happened  to  be  unoccupied  at  the  time. 
The  medical  ghost  helped  himself  to  a  cig- 
arette from  a  trayful  on  the  mantel-piece, 
and  lighting  it,  he  seated  himself  in  an  arm- 
chair, and  puffed  away  with  evident  enjoy- 
ment. I  noticed  the  smoke,  which  he 
inhaled  continually,  oozed  from  all  parts  of 
his  body. 

"  My  dear  fellow,"  he  said  impressively, 
"  you  must  understand  that  all  diseases  are 


I 


AN    INTERESTING   GHOST.  107 

caused  by  germs — microscopic  bugs  and 
plants,  you  know,  many  of  them  so  small 
that  they  are  invisible  to  an  ordinary  micro- 
scope, or,  if  seen  at  all,  are  not  recognized. 
There  are  thousands  and  thousands  of  them, 
and  each  and  every  one  has  its  mission  in 
life,  and  preys  upon  and  destroys  other 
germs.  Now,  the  human  body  is  constantly 
getting  a  lot  of  germs  inside  of  it  which  do 
not  belong  there.  Some  are  taken  in  by  the 
lungs,  while  floating  in  the  air;  some  by  the 
stomach,  by  the  food  and  drink;  some  by 
the  skin,  etc. 

"  These  germs  are  met  by  their  natural 
enemies  which  live  in  man's  blood  —  his 
body-guard,  as  it  were  —  and  are  destroyed. 
But  if  the  attacking  army  is  very  large,  or 
from  some  reason  the  home  army  has  been 
weakened  and  decimated,  then  the  invad- 
ers flourish,  establish  themselves  and  wax 
powerful  and  strong,  and  the  man  becomes 
what  is  called  '  sick.' 


108  AN    INTERESTING   GHOST. 

"Come,"  he  said,  rising  abruptly,  and 
throwing  the  unconsumed  end  of  his  ciga- 
rette into  the  fireplace.  "  Come  with  me 
to  the  laboratory,  and  I  will  show  you  in 
about  two  minutes  more  than  I  could  ex- 
plain if  I  talked  for  years,  and  a  great  deal 
more  satisfactorily." 

We  floated  down  to  the  laboratory,  and 
the  ghost  took  from  the  shelf  a  wide- 
mouthed  bottle  and  held  it  up  to  the  light. 

"  Here,"  he  said,  "  we  have  a  culture. 
You,  of  course,  understand  how  the  germs 
of  disease  are  cultivated  for  experimental 
use.  It  is  needless  for  me  to  explain  to 
you  that  certain  media  are  used  for  these 
cultures,  such  as  milk,  beef-broth,  etc. 

"  Here  we  have  the  germ  of  diphtheria, 
here  of  tuberculosis,  here  of  typhoid  fever, 
etc.  That  little  short  jar  over  yonder  con- 
tains some  cholera  bacilli,  which  have  been 
lately  sent  here.  Now  look  at  this  typhoid 
germ.  If  we  took  a  drop  of  healthy  blood 


AN    INTERESTING   GHOST.  109 

and  put  some  of  these  typhoid  germs  in  it, 
how  they  would  wiggle!  but  if  the  drop  of 
blood  was  from  a  typhoid  patient,  they  won't 
wiggle  very  long,  as  you  know.  See  this 
blunt-headed  chap  which  we  have  to  stain 
to  see  properly,  even  with  this  wonderful 
microscope;  that  is  our  old  friend  the  ba- 
cillus of  tuberculosis;  but  unless  you  see  the 
patient  first  I  do  not  believe  you  could  dis- 
tinguish him  from  the  leprosy  bug. 

"  These  are  known  germs,  but  look 
through  the  glass  at  this  drop,  and  you  will 
see  some  bugs  worth  seeing,  although  the 
medical  fraternity  have  not  as  yet  discovered 
their  value.  Perhaps  you  know  that  most 
bacteriologists  consider  these  germs  to  be 
plants,  not  bugs,  although  they  admit  some 
of  them  move  a  little.  How  astonished 
they  would  be  if  they  could  look  through 
this  glass!  See  that  chap  with  green  hind 
legs:  he  preys  on  the  typhoid  germ,  and 
when  they  discover  this  physicians  will 


HO  AN    INTERESTING    GHOST. 

simply  inoculate  the  patient  with  a  lot  of 
these  little  chaps  with  the  green  legs,  and 
they  will  do  the  rest. 

"  Here  is  a  germ  with  yellow  stripes 
which  looks  a  little  like  a  diminutive  potato 
bug.  He  is  the  deadly  enemy  of  the  bug  of 
consumption,  and  will  attack  and  kill  him  on 
every  possible  occasion.  They  are  about 
evenly  matched,  but  I  think  the  little  striped 
chap  is  a  bit  the  better.  Another  ghost  and 
myself  made  a  match  the  other  night,  — 
seven  battles,  the  result  to  decide  the  cham- 
pionship, —  a  sort  of  a  bugging  main,  as  it 
were.  I  won.  The  first  six  matches  were 
even.  We  won  three  each,  but  in  the 
seventh  my  striped  bug  got  the  tubercular 
germ  down  and  shook  him  as  a  terrier  does 
a  rat.  The  other  ghost  and  myself  nearly 
had  a  fight  to  get  our  eyes  to  the  microscope. 
I  tell  you  it  was  exciting.  There  is  my 
champion  bug  now,  see  him?  —  the  one 
with  the  fourth  hind  leg  gone." 


AN    INTERESTING   GHOST.  in 

"  But  how,"  I  asked,  "  are  you  going  to 
prevent  people  from  dying  of  old  age  ?  " 

"Of  course  they  will  die  of  old  age; 
but  there  is  no  such  thing  as  old  age  under 
one  hundred  and  fifty  years ;  what  you  call 
old  age  is  not  old  age  at  all.  There  are 
two  kinds  of  old  age  or  senility.  Old  age, 
properly  speaking,  results  from  a  distinct 
modification  of  the  nervous  tissues  and  a 
hardening  of  the  arteries  —  the  former 
caused  by  unnatural  conditions,  nervous 
strain  and  dissipation,  and  the  latter  from 
over-feeding  and  drinking.  The  trouble 
with  the  ordinary  man  is  that  he  absorbs 
great  quantities  of  nitrogenous  foods  instead 
of  making  his  diet  one  of  nuts,  fruit,  milk, 
etc.  In  comparatively  young  men  of  the 
present  age  there  is  often  a  decided  modifi- 
cation of  the  nervous  tissues  with  symptoms 
resembling  those  in  neurasthenia.  In  such 
cases  galvanic  treatment  will  restore  the 
centres  to  their  normal  condition.  You 


112  AN    INTERESTING    GHOST. 

will,  therefore,  I  think,  admit  that  with 
proper  diet  and  possibly  the  aid  of  a  gal- 
vanic battery  a  man  may  live,  —  barring 
possible  death  by  violence,  —  say,  two  hun- 
dred years." 

"  You  mean,"  I  said,  "  when  we  have 
learned  to  combat  the  various  disease  germs 
by  pitting  against  them  their  natural  ene- 
mies." 

"  Exactly,  of  course,"  answered  the  shade; 
"but  it  seems  to  me  that  we  have  talked 
long  enough ;  I  am  becoming  very  dry,  so 
let  us  repair  to  the  Waldorf  and  have  a 
cocktail." 

"  How  is  it  possible,"  I  asked,  "that  you 
can  take  a  cocktail,  there  being  nothing 
tangible  about  you  ?  " 

"  Of  course,"  answered  the  ghost,  "  it  is 
impossible  for  me  to  actually  drink  a  cock- 
tail. I  can,  however,  float  over  the  bar  and 
inhale  the  pleasing  odors  arising  from  the 
various  concoctions  served  to  the  guests, 


AN    INTERESTING   GHOST.  113 

and  in  my  ethereal  condition  I  enjoy  the 
odors  and  am  affected  by  them  as  much  as 
if  I  were  really  drinking  the  liquid." 

We  floated  from  the  house  and  down 
town,  until  we  reached  the  brilliantly 
lighted  Waldorf  Hotel.  There  were  many 
people  in  the  bar-room,  and  the  medical 
shade  and  myself,  floating  about  over  the  dif- 
ferent tables,  inhaled  with  decided  enjoy- 
ment the  delicate  aroma  of  the  various 
mixed  drinks  so  dear  to  the  present  genera- 
tion. 

To  my  annoyance  my  shade  companion 
soon  began  to  sing  —  he  was  evidently 
affected  by  the  odors  which  had  passed 
through  him.  His  manner  became  familiar, 
and  I  had  great  difficulty  in  keeping  him 
from  kicking  the  glasses  off  the  tables.  At 
last  I  succeeded  in  getting  him  out  of  the 
room,  and  it  was  time,  for  as  we  floated 
into  the  street  he  began  shouting  in  a  most 
uproarious  manner,  and  I  was  afraid  that 


114  AN    INTERESTING    GHOST. 

we  should  be  arrested  for  disturbing  the 
peace. 

"Be  quiet,  I  beg  of  you,"  I  pleaded;  "  see 
that  policeman  on  the  opposite  side  of  the 
street?  We  shall  surely  get  into  trouble  if 
you  make  such  a  noise." 

"  Policeman  ?  "  hiccoughed  the  shade, 
u  What  the  devil  do  I  care  for  a  police- 
man ?  W^atch  me  go  over  and  punch  him 
in  the  stomach." 

In  spite  of  all  I  could  do  to  prevent  him 
he  started  straight  for  the  officer,  who  was 
standing  all  unconscious  on  the  corner, 
watching  a  pretty  girl  who  was  looking 
into  one  of  the  brilliantly  lighted  store 
windows.  Now  was  my  time  to  rid  my- 
self of  this  most  undesirable  companion, 
and  I  wished  myself  in  my  own  room. 

Instantly  I  found  myself  floating  about 
over  my  bed,  and  there  was  my  body  sleep- 
ing as  peacefully  as  ever.  I  was  somewhat 
tired,  but  I  remembered  our  contract  to 


AN   INTERESTING   GHOST.  115 

write  down  the  result  of  our  experiences, 
and  immediately  sat  down  to  do  it.  After 
I  had  written  it  I  read  it  over  carefully  to 
see  if  I  had  overlooked  anything,  and  then 
wished  myself  in  bed  and  asleep.  The 
next  thing  I  knew  it  was  broad  daylight. 
There,  on  my  writing-table,  were  the  pages 
of  manuscript  which  I  had  written.  They 
were  real  enough,  whether  the  rest  was  a 
dream  or  not. 


THE  MOUND  OF  ETERNAL 
SILENCE. 


"  T  OUGHT  to  know  something  about  it," 

A  said  the  Drummer,  "  for  I  went  with 
the  Prospector  and  the  Eastern  man  to  see 
Judson. 

"  I  remember  when  we  started  out  to- 
gether the  Eastern  man  asked  the  Prospector 
if  he  thought  Judson  was  really  crazy. 

"  '  Yes,'  said  the  Prospector,  '  he  is  as 
crazy  as  a  loon,  as  you  will  see  when  you 
get  there.' 

" '  Tell  me  the  story  over  again,'  said  the 
Eastern  man. 

" '  Well,  you  see,'  said  the  Prospector, 
'  they  found  him  lying  in  the  hot  sand  away 
off  on  the  desert,  with  his  head  propped 

116 


THE    MOUND   OF   ETERNAL    SILENCE. 


117 


up  against  a  rock,  nearly  dead  for  want 
of  water.  When  they  tried  to  rouse  him 
he  stared  at  them  vacantly.  They  gave 
him  a  little  water,  and  as  soon  as  he  had 
swallowed  it  he  fought  like  a  wild  animal 
for  more.  It  took  three  or  four  of  them  to 
hold  him.  He  cursed  and  swore  at  them 
because  they  would  not  give  him  all  he 
wanted,  and  his  cries  were  pitiful.  He  al- 
ternately cursed  and  screamed  for  water, 
sometimes  as  loud  as  he  could  shout  and 
then  again  in  faint  whispers. 

" (  Later  on,  when  they  dared  to  give  him 
more  at  a  time,  he  became  tranquil,  and 
towards  night,  after  he  had  drunk  a  bowl 
full  of  thin  oatmeal  gruel,  he  went  to  sleep. 
When  he  awoke  they  questioned  him. 

" '  He  said  that  he  had  been  prospecting 
with  his  partner,  and  had  found  a  gulch 
with  precipitous  cliffs  all  around  it  where 
there  was  very  rich  placer  digging.  Di- 
rectly in  front  was  a  high  mound  covered 


Il8   THE    MOUND    OF   ETERNAL   SILENCE. 

with  big  cacti,  and  they  made  their  camp 
on  the  top  of  this.  There  was  a  little  water 
in  the  canon  held  in  rock  basins,  and 
with  this  they  washed  out  the  gold  and  got 
a  lot  of  it  —  Judson  says  three  or  four 
thousand  dollars'  worth.  Then  bad  luck 
came,  and  the  burro  died.  Three  days 
afterwards  Judson's  partner  was  poisoned  in 
some  way,  and  died  a  few  hours  later,  curs- 
ing Judson  and  saying  he  had  poisoned  him. 
"  'Judson  buried  him  and  also  the  gold;  it 
was  too  heavy  for  him  to  pack,  especially  as 
he  had  no  way  to  carry  water.  Then  taking 
a  small  bag  of  gold  dust  in  his  pocket  he 
started  across  the  desert.  He  had  a  hobby 
for  taking  photographs  and  carried  a  small 
camera  with  him,  and  before  leaving  he 
photographed  the  place,  which  he  called 
"  The  Mound  of  Eternal  Silence,"  so  that  in 
case  anything  happened  to  him  it  could  be 
found  without  trouble.  They  developed 
the  negatives  later,  and  he  has  them  pasted 


V 


THE    MOUND    OF   ETERNAL   SILENCE. 


t!9 


all  around  his  room.  He  called  the  place 
"  The  Mound  of  Eternal  Silence  "  because 
during  the  two  months  he  was  there  he 
never  saw  or  heard  a  single  living  thing 
except  jack-rabbits  and  a  bird  or  two.' 

" '  What  was  that  about  his  killing  the 
dog  ?'  asked  the  Eastern  man. 

"  <  Well,  you  see  when  Judson  started  off 
alone  the  dog  would  not  leave  his  dead 
master,  and  sat  upon  the  hill  howling. 
Judson  was  afraid  he  would  attract  some- 
body's attention  if  they  happened  along  that 
way,  and  after  trying  to  get  him  to  follow 
him  without  success,  he  went  back  and  shot 
him.  The  first  thing  that  Judson  saw  when 
he  awoke  the  next  morning  after  they  had 
found  him  was  the  dog  sitting  on  his 
haunches  looking  at  him.  Judson  looked  at 
the  animal,  but  said  nothing  —  something 
within  him  forced  him  to  keep  silence. 
After  a  time  he  snapped  his  fingers  and 
called  the  dog  by  name. 


120   THE    MOUND    OF    ETERNAL    SILENCE. 

"  *  "  Did  you  speak  ?  "  asked  one  of  the 
men,  Stevens  it  was,  I  believe. 

" t "  I  was  only  calling  the  dog,"  said 
Judson. 

"  <  "  What  dog?  "  asked  Stevens. 

"  ' "  Why,  that  dog,  of  course,"  said  Jud- 
son, pointing  at  the  animal. 

" ' "  You  are  crazy,  man,"  answered 
Stevens.  "  The  heat  yesterday  was  too 
much  for  you;  there  is  no  dog  there." 

"  'Judson  turned  away;  he  began  to  fear 
there  might  be  something  the  matter  with 
his  brain,  and  that  there  was  no  dog  there 
after  all.  But  when  he  looked  again  there 
he  was  as  plain  as  ever.  "  I  will  take  the 
brute  outside  of  camp  and  kill  him  when 
I  get  a  chance,"  he  thought. 

"'  That  evening  when  they  made  camp  at 
a  small  water  hole,  Judson  walked  away  out 
of  sight  and  hearing  of  the  camp.  When 
he  could  no  longer  be  seen  he  turned,  and, 
aiming  his  pistol  at  the  dog,  pulled  the 


THE    MOUND    OF    ETERNAL    SILENCE.     12 1 

trigger.  The  bullet  hit  the  ground  between 
the  animal's  legs,  and  he  ran  back  a  few 
paces  and  stood  grinning  at  Judson  showing 
his  teeth,  and  his  face  looked  like  that  of 
his  old  partner.  Judson  picked  up  a  large 
rock  and  ran  at  the  dog;  the  animal  yelped 
slightly  and  started  for  camp.  Judson  in- 
creased his  pace  and  the  dog  circled  out 
into  the  desert. 

"l "  Curse  you,"  cried  Judson, "  I'll  kill  you 
yet."  Several  times  he  threw  stones  at  the 
animal,  and  twice  he  fell,  bruising  himself 
among  the  loose  rocks.  At  last  he  sat  down. 

"  < "  What  is  the  matter  with  you,"  shouted 
Stevens.  "  What  are  you  running  about 
and  shouting  in  that  way  for?" 

"'"That  confounded  dog  of  mine," 
answered  Judson  unthinkingly. 

"  '  "  Nonsense,  man,  there  is'nt  any  dog." 

"'Judson  walked  slowly  back  to  camp  fol- 
lowed closely  by  the  dog.  The  men  looked 
at  him  strangely.  That  night  when  he  went 


*    T 


122    THE   MOUND    OF   ETERNAL    SILENCE. 

to  sleep  the  brute  came  and  lay  down  beside 
him.  A  horrid  fear  took  possession  of  him 
and  he  pushed  the  thing  away,  but  it  imme- 
diately crawled  back  again.  At  last  he 
arose  and  spent  the  rest  of  the  night  walking 
up  and  down  the  desert,  the  dog  following 
close  at  his  heels. 

"  '  When  they  arrived  in  Phoenix  the  doctor 
ad\7ised  Judson  to  go  to  a  quiet  place  and 
rest,  and  gave  him  an  opiate.' 

" l  Why  don't  he  go  back  and  get  the 
gold  ?  '  asked  the  Eastern  man. 

"  '  Because  as  I  have  told  you  whenever 
he  starts  to  go  back  the  dog  meets  him  on 
the  desert,  and  he  is  only  free  from  it  when 
he  stays  in  Phoenix.  He  says  the  dog  is  his 
old  partner,  and  will  never  let  him  go  back 
there  again.  That  is  why  he  is  willing  to 
sell  his  secret.' 

"  '  But  how  do  you  know  if  we  pay  him 
this  money,'  asked  the  Eastern  man,  '  that 
we  can  find  the  gold?' 


THE   MOUND   OF   ETERNAL   SILENCE.     123 

"  <  Why,  his  map  and  directions  together 
with  the  photographs  ought  to  make  it  sure. 
Anyway,  I  am  putting  up  $250  of  my  money 
with  your  $350,  and  run  as  much  risk  as 
you  do ;  besides,  you  never  would  have 
known  about  it  if  it  hadn't  been  for  me.' 

"  <  Won't  he  take  less  than  $600?  '  asked 
the  Eastern  man. 

" '  Not  a  cent  ;  I  have  tried  him  too  often. 
If  I  had  $600  of  my  own  I  never  would  ask 
any  one  to  go  in  with  me.  It's  a  snap.' 

"  We  found  Judson  seated  in  a  big  arm- 
chair, smoking  a  meerschaum  pipe.  His 
eyes  had  a  peculiar  wild  expression,  and  he 
glared  at  us  as  we  entered. 

"'What  do  you  people  want?'  he  asked. 

" ( We  have  come  to  buy  your  claim,' 
said  the  Prospector. 

"  Judson  laughed  a    strange,  hard  laugh. 

"  '  Always  the  same  —  gold,  gold,  gold. 
Have  you  the  money  with  you  to  pay  for 
it?'  he  asked. 


124    THE    MOUND    OF    ETERNAL    SILENCE. 

"The  Prospector  produced  a  bag  of 
twenty-dollar  gold  pieces  and  shook  it. 
'  Here  it  is,'  he  said,  '  this  gentleman  and 
myself  have  made  up  the  amount  — 
$600.' 

" '  Well,'  shouted  Judson,  '  give  me  the 
money  and  take  the  cursed  claim,  buried 
gold  and  all,  and  much  good  may  it  do  you ! 
I  will  go  away  —  far  away  from  here.  My 
God,  to  think  that  I  should  sell  a  rich  claim 
like  that  for  nothing!  But  I  wouldn't  go 
back  to  it  for  all  the  gold  in  the  world. 
Three  times  I  have  tried,  and  each  time 
that  dog  devil  met  me  at  the  edge  of  the 
desert,  grinning  at  me  with  the  face  of  my 
dead  partner.  Here  are  the  photographs 
and  the  map,  take  them  and  go,  my  head 
aches;  go  away  and  leave  me.' 

"  He  buried  his  face  in  his  hands,  groan- 
ing and  muttering  to  himself.  The  Pros- 
pector put  the  bag  of  gold  on  the  table, 
and  taking  the  photographs  and  map  left 


THE    MOUND    OF   ETERNAL   SILENCE.      125 

the  room.  We  followed  him,  closing  the 
door  softly  behind  us." 

"Did   you   find    the   gold?"    I    asked. 

"  I  didn't  look  for  it,"  answered  the 
Drummer.  "  They  offered  to  let  me  in  and 
give  me  a  third  interest  for  $300,  but  some- 
how I  didn't  like  the  idea,  and  the  whole 
thing  seemed  uncanny,  and  it  is  lucky  I 
didn't.  The  Prospector  and  the  Eastern 
man  got  back  a  week  later  without  having 
discovered  the  '  Mound  of  Eternal  Silence,' 
both  mad  as  hatters,  and  each  laying  the 
blame  of  the  failure  on  the  other.  I  have 
always  wondered  since  if  Judson  was  really 
as  crazy  as  they  thought  he  was." 

"  Why,"  I  asked,  "  what  made  you  doubt 
it?" 

"  Oh,"  answered  the  Drummer,  "  I  can't 
exactly  say  I  disbelieve  his  story,  but  — 
well,  you  see,  about  a  month  afterwards  I 
was  in  Phoenix  again,  and  one  night  I  saw 
the  Prospector  and  the  lunatic  taking  a 


126   THE   MOUND    OF   ETERNAL    SILENCE. 

drink  at  a  bar  together.  A  little  later  the 
Prospector  passed  me  without  seeing  me. 
He  was  walking  arm  in  arm  with  a  stranger, 
and  as  they  went  by  I  heard  him  say,  '  If  I 
had  the  money  I  never  would  think  of  ask- 
ing any  one  to  go  in  with  me.  He  calls  it 
the  "  Mound  of  Eternal  Silence."'  .  .  . 
"  They  passed  on,  and  their  voices  were 
lost  to  me  in  the  distance." 


TlXINOPA. 


STORY   OF   A   BAD   INDIAN. 


MALITA  was  a  half-breed,  the  daugh- 
ter of  an  old  squaw  man.  She  had 
spent  several  years  at  the  Indian  school  in 
Phoenix,  and  had  proved  herself  an  apt 
pupil.  Later  she  went  to  work  on  Sim- 
mons' Ranch.  She  was  a  very  pretty, 
healthy  looking  girl,  and  one  day  Morgan 
Jones,  the  hunter  and  trapper,  asked  her  to 
marry  him.  She  went  with  him  to  his  cabin 
near  the  Reservation  and  settled  down. 

Jones  was  a  devil-may-care  sort  of  chap, 
who,  when  he  had  a  little  money,  came  to 
the  straggling  one-horse  town  near  the 
Reservation,  drank  considerable  whiskey, 
and  amused  himself  by  running  his  pony  up 
127 


128  STORY    OF   A    BAD    INDIAN. 

and  down  the  one  street,  firing  off  his  gun, 
and  shouting  at  the  top  of  his  voice.  This 
was  Jones'  idea  of  a  good  time,  and  his 
method  of  contributing  his  share  to  the 
sanguinary  ornamentation  of  the  embryo 
metropolis. 

Malita  made  Jones  a  good  wife,  and  at- 
tended to  his  creature  comforts  to  the  best 
of  her  ability,  and  when  Jones  returned  to 
the  cabin  in  an  inebriated  condition  she 
soothed  him,  and  put  him  to  bed,  looking 
upon  such  incidents  as  a  matter  of  course. 
For  a  year  or  more  they  lived  contentedly, 
and  a  little  boy  was  born  to  them. 

On  the  Reservation  lived  an  Indian 
named  Tixinopa,  a  splendid  specimen  of  a 
savage  athlete,  and  the  most  noted  runner 
and  hunter  in  his  tribe.  Like  many  of 
his  race,  while  hating  the  white  man,  he 
loved  the  white  man's  fire-water,  and  it 
made  him  surly  and  quarrelsome.  He  was 
a  natural  leader,  and  often,  at  night,  he 


STORY   OF   A   BAD   INDIAN.  129 

spoke  with  fiery  eloquence  of  the  wrongs 
of  his  race,  sowing  the  seeds  of  unrest  and 
rebellion. 

Tixinopa  was  the  only  cloud  which  dis- 
turbed the  domestic  horizon  of  the  Jones 
family.  He  haunted  the  vicinity  of  the 
cabin,  and  was  continually  asking  Malita 
for  whiskey  and  tobacco  when  Jones  was 
away,  until  at  last  Jones  intimated  to  him 
gently  that  his  presence  was,  to  say  the 
least,  undesirable.  Being  a  child  of  the 
woods  and  hills,  he  did  not  have  at  his 
command  a  large  vocabulary  of  diplomatic 
phrases  to  enable  him  to  do  this  politely, 
in  fact,  he  was  blunt. 

In  describing  the  interview  to  Malita 
afterwards  he  said  : 

"  I  told  him  if  he  cum  around  here  any 
more  I'd  smash  his  head,  an'  he  grunts  an' 
draws  himself  up  this  a-way,  and  looks  ugly 
and  says, i  he's  a  big  Injun,'  and  I  told  him 
to  go  to  hell !  " 


130  STORY    OF   A   BAD    INDIAN. 

For  some  time  Tixinopa  kept  away  from 
the  cabin,  but  one  day  he  appeared  and 
demanded  whiskey.  He  was  half  drunk, 
and  his  bloodshot  eyes  blinked  at  Malita  as 
he  swayed  unsteadily  in  the  doorway. 

a  No,  Tixinopa,  there  is  no  whiskey." 

Tixinopa's  eyes  grew  ugly.  "You  lie, 
you  half-breed  squaw;  but  be  it  so,  I  will 
take  the  boy  away  until  you  remember 
where  it  is." 

So  saying  he  lifted  the  baby  by  the  arm 
and  swung  him  on  to  his  shoulder.  The 
child  cried  out  with  pain  from  its  twisted 
arm.  Malita's  heart  sunk  with  a  dreadful 
fear. 

"  Give  the  child  to  me,  Tixinopa,  do  not 
be  so  rough;  see,  you  have  hurt  him." 

She  tried  to  take  the  boy,  but  Tixinopa 
pushed  her  away  roughly  and  she  fell  to  the 
ground.  Up  she  sprang  and  threw  herself 
upon  him,  trying  to  get  the  boy,  and  in  the 
struggle  she  scratched  his  face  slightly,  so 


' 


MALITA. 


STORY   OF   A   BAD   INDIAN.  131 

that  the  blood  came.  With  a  curse  he 
struck  her  full  in  the  face  with  his  clinched 
fist  and  she  fell  as  if  dead,  and  lay  with  her 
hands  twitching  feebly. 

"  Take  your  half-breed  brat,"  he  hissed, 
throwing  the  baby  roughly  on  the  ground 
beside  her.  He  turned  to  walk  away,  but 
something  in  the  motionless  form  of  the 
child  caused  him  to  look  again,  and  he  saw 
that  his  little  head  lay  doubled  under  his 
arm  in  a  way  that  could  only  mean  one 
thing  —  a  broken  neck. 

Malita  rose  unsteadily  to  her  feet  and 
looked  about  in  a  dazed  way  until  her  gaze 
rested  upon  the  little  bod)'  of  her  dead 
baby;  the  next  instant  she  was  striking  and 
cutting  at  Tixinopa,  screaming  like  a  mad 
thing. 

The  attack  was  so  sudden  and  fierce  that, 
trained  athlete  and  fighter  as  he  was,  Tix- 
inopa received  a  deep  cut  on  the  shoulder 
and  a  slight  one  on  the  arm  before  he  sue- 


132  STORY    OF    A    BAD    INDIAN. 

ceeded  in  grasping  her  wrist,  and  twisting 
the  knife  from  her.  Then,  seizing  her  by 
the  hair,  he  drew  her  to  him  and  drove  the 
knife  twice  into  her  breast,  throwing  her  to 
the  ground,  where  she  lay  gasping  her  life 
away  in  broken  sobs. 

Tixinopa  stood  for  a  moment  looking  at 
Malita  and  was  quite  still.  His  arm  pained 
him  and  he  held  up  his  hand  and  watched 
the  blood  dripping  from  his  fingers.  Then 
he  took  a  self-cocking  revolver  from  his 
belt  and  fired  shot  after  shot  into  the  bodies 
of  the  dead  baby  and  the  dying  mother. 
Twice  the  hammer  clicked  on  an  empty 
shell  before  he  ceased  to  pull  the  trigger, 
and  he  slowly  turned  away,  pushing  his 
empty  pistol  into  his  belt.  As  he  did  so  he 
found  himself  face  to  face  with  Jones,  but  a 
different  Jones  than  the  one  he  had  known. 
This  Jones'  face  was  white  and  drawn,  and 
looked  years  older  than  the  other  Jones. 
The  hand  which  held  a  pistol  pointed  at 


STORY    OF   A    BAD    INDIAN. 


133 


him  shook  unsteadily.  A  minute,  perhaps 
two  minutes,  passed,  and  still  the  two  men 
faced  each  other;  then  an  evil  light  came 
into  Tixinopa's  eyes,  and  his  hand  slid 
slowly  towards  the  handle  of  his  knife,  to 
be  instantly  smashed  by  a  bullet  from  Jones' 
pistol.  Another  shot  and  the  other  arm 
was  broken  at  the  elbow.  Neither  man 
had  spoken,  but  now  Tixinopa  began  a  low, 
wild  chant.  Raised  to  his  full  height,  with 
his  broken  arms  hanging  by  his  sides,  he 
chanted  the  death  song  of  his  people,  the  same 
song  which  had  been  sung  by  his  father,  and 
his  father's  father,  and  for  generations  past 
by  all  the  dying  warriors  of  his  tribe. 

"Tixinopa,"  the  voice  was  a  husky 
whisper,  "  for  her  sake  I  won't  torture  yer 
as  I  would  like  ter,  —  God  give  me  strength 
to  keep  from  doin'  it !  —  but  I'm  afeared  He 
won't  unless  I  kill  yer  quick.  All  I  hope  is 
that  if  there  is  a  hell,  your  black  soul  will 
roast  in  it  for  ever  and  ever,  amen!" 


134  STORY    OF   A    BAD    INDIAN. 

The  muzzle  of  the  pistol  was  now  within 
a  few  inches  of  the  naked  breast;  still  the 
low,  wild  chant  went  on,  the  bronze  figure 
standing  as  if  turned  to  stone.  Then  another 
shot  and  the  chant  stopped. 

Ten  minutes  later  a  horseman  rode  slowly 
into  the  desert.  To  his  left,  as  he  crossed 
the  half-dry  bed  of  the  alkali  stream,  two 
Indian  boys  were  skinning  a  rabbit  alive 
and  laughing  at  its  agony.  From  afar  back 
on  the  other  side  of  the  valley  he  heard  the 
strains  of  the  "Star  Spangled  Banner" 
played  by  the  pride  of  the  Reservation  — 
the  Indian  band! 


A    QUEER    COINCIDENCE. 


"  "\7OU  say,"  said  Doctor  Watson,  as  he 
X  rested  one  arm  on  the  mantel  and 
looked  thoughtfully  at  the  open  fire,  —  "you 
say  there  is  no  proof  of  the  actuality  of 
what  is  called  telepathy  or  though  t-transfer- 
rence,  and  perhaps  you  are  right,  but  I  have 
several  times  in  my  life  had  experiences 
which  were  very  difficult  to  explain  except 
by  some  such  theory,  and  if  you  care  to 
listen  I  will  tell  you  one  of  them  which  I 
have  in  mind." 

Our  chorus  of  approval  evidently  left  no 
doubt  as  to  our  desire  to  hear  the  story,  for 
Watson  smiled,  and  lighting  a  fresh  cigar 
he  began  as  follows: 

"On  the  seventeenth  of  January  last  year 


136  A   QUEER    COINCIDENCE. 

there  was  a  slight  wash-out  on  the  Northern 
road  not  far  from  Chicago,  and  the  forward 
trucks  of  one  of  the  cars  on  train  61,  on 
which  I  was  a  passenger,  left  the  rails,  but 
luckily  the  train  was  going  slowly  at  the 
time  and  there  was  little  damage  done 
except  a  general  shaking  up  of  the  pas- 
sengers in  the  car  as  the  forward  wheels 
bumped  roughly  over  the  sleepers  for  a  few 
yards  before  the  train  stopped.  The  other 
cars  did  not  leave  the  track,  and  only  one 
man  was  seriously  injured. 

"This  man  had  been  standing  on  the  plat- 
form at  the  time  and  was  thrown  between 
the  cars  and  badly  crushed.  I  was  close 
to  the  end  window  and  saw  him  fall,  and 
when  the  conductor  called  for  a  doctor  I 
responded  at  once. 

"  I  found  the  man  lying  on  a  blanket  sur- 
rounded by  a  number  of  the  passengers. 
He  seemed  to  suffer  but  little  pain,  and 
I  feared,  from  a  casual  examination,  he 


A    QUEER   COINCIDENCE.  137 

was  badly  injured  internally,  although  he 
was  perfectly  conscious;  he  was  bleeding 
at  the  mouth,  and  his  legs  seemed  to  be 
paralyzed.  He  asked  faintly  if  I  thought 
he  was  going  to  die,  and  I  cheered  him  up, 
as  is  customary  in  such  cases,  but  shortly 
afterwards  he  developed  such  serious  symp- 
toms that  I  felt  forced  to  tell  him  I  feared 
he  was  seriously  hurt,  and  it  was  quite 
possible  he  would  live  but  a  few  hours. 

"  Upon  hearing  this  he  became  very 
much  agitated,  and  whispered  to  me  that  he 
wished  to  speak  to  me  alone,  saying  he  had 
something  of  the  utmost  importance  to  com- 
municate. 

"  I  thought  it  was  probably  some  message 
to  send  to  some  members  of  his  family,  or 
some  instructions  regarding  his  affairs,  but 
after  a  few  words  I  became  very  much  in- 
terested. He  talked  for  fifteen  minutes, 
part  of  the  time  being  sustained  by  the  use 
of  stimulants.  His  story,  which  was  a  very 


138  A   QUEER   COINCIDENCE. 

strange  one,  I  will  repeat  as  nearly  as  pos- 
sible in  his  own  words.  After  repeatedly 
asking  me  to  assure  him  there  was  no 
possible  chance  of  his  recovery  he  said: 

" '  It  is  not  necessary  for  you  to  know  my 
name,  but  it  is  sufficient  for  me  to  tell  you 
that  I  received  a  good  education  in  my 
youth  and  graduated  with  high  honors  at 
one  of  the  large  universities  in  this  country. 
I  always  had  more  or  less  interest  in  the 
study  of  physiology,  and  during  my  college 
course  conducted  a  series  of  experiments 
in  hypnotism,  and  made  some  interesting 
discoveries  regarding  the  exaltation  of  the 
senses,  and  especially  in  relation  to  illusion 
and  hallucination  by  the  aid  of  post-hypnotic 
suggestion. 

" '  It  had  been  my  earnest  desire  to  occupy 
the  position  of  professor  of  physiology  in 
one  of  the  universities,  but  failing  to  obtain 
a  position  of  this  kind,  and  having  no  means 
of  support,  I  gradually  became  poorer  and 


A   QUEER   COINCIDENCE.  139 

poorer,  earning  a  livelihood  as  best  I  could, 
until  I  became  discouraged  and  attempted  to 
make  money  in  a  way  not  quite  so  honest. 

"'  The  idea  suggested  itself  to  me  during 
a  series  of  experiments  which  I  had  con- 
ducted with  a  friend  of  mine.  It  so  hap- 
pened that  this  friend  was  paying  teller  in 
one  of  our  well-known  banks  of  Chicago, 
where  he  is  to-day.  He  is  a  thoroughly 
honorable  man  in  every  way,  but  I  found 
that  he  was  a  good  hypnotic  subject,  or  sen- 
sitive, as  we  call  it.  At  first  he  could  not 
be  considered  first  class,  but  he  was  much 
interested  in  the  subject,  and  allowed  me 
to  hypnotize  him  repeatedly.  After  a  few 
evenings  he  became  very  easily  influenced 
and  one  of  the  best  subjects  I  had  ever 
had.  I  could  put  him  to  sleep  in  a  moment, 
simply  snapping  my  fingers  and  telling  him 
I  wished  him  to  sleep;  of  course  this  can 
only  be  done  with  sensitives  who  have  been 
repeatedly  hypnotized. 


140  A   QUEER    COINCIDENCE. 

"'  Under  these  conditions  I  succeeded  in 
making  him  do  very  many  wonderful  things, 
especially  in  the  way  of  post-hypnotic  sug- 
gestions; a  post-hypnotic  suggestion  is  a 
command  given  to  hypnotized  subjects 
that  at  some  future  time  they  perform  a 
certain  act.  In  most  cases,  in  waking  from 
the  hypnotic  sleep  they  have  forgotten  that 
the  suggestion  has  been  given  them,  but  at 
the  time  set  they  perform  the  act  uncon- 
sciously, as  though  by  their  own  volition. 
Not  only  will  they  do  this,  but  after  the  act 
is  performed  they  usually  sink  into  a  quiet 
sleep,1  from  which  they  awake  after  passing 
into  the  normal  sleep,  and,  as  a  rule,  have 
forgotten  that  they  did  anything  unusual,  or 
that  they  have  been  hypnotized,  and  take  up 
the  thread  of  thought  again  at  the  point 
where  they  first  entered  the  hypnotic  con- 
dition. They  do  not  remember  what  they 


1  This  is  unusual ;  the  subject  rarely  falls  asleep  after  carrying  out  a 
post-hypnotic  suggestion  unless  commanded  to  do  so.  —  ED. 


A   QUEER   COINCIDENCE.  141 

have  done  or  seen.  Their  mind  is  a  blank 
as  to  all  that  occurred  during  the  time 
they  were  hypnotized. 

" '  For  the  last  two  years  I  have  been 
rather  fortunate,  in  a  small  way,  speculating 
in  stocks.  My  capital  being  small,  the 
amount  of  money  I  could  make  was,  of 
course,  comparatively  little;  yet  I  suc- 
ceeded in  doing  very  well  until  about 
three  weeks  ago,  when,  by  two  or  three 
unfortunate  speculations,  I  found  myself 
absolutely  destitute,  and  without  a  penny 
in  the  world.  It  was  then  the  idea  sug- 
gested itself  to  me  to  hypnotize  Mr. 
Herrick  and  make  him  bring  me  money 
from  the  bank.  This  of  course  was  per- 
fectly possible,  if  no  accident  occurred,  or 
no  unforeseen  difficulty  presented  itself, 
which  I  had  not  previously  thought  of,  as 
the  cashier  would  act  simply  as  an  instru- 
ment, being  governed  entirely  by  my  direc- 
tions. I  asked  him  in  a  casual  way  several 


142  A    QUEER   COINCIDENCE. 

times  about  the  affairs  of  the  bank,  and 
learned  one  day  that  the  bank  would  have 
an  unusually  large  balance  in  settling  with 
the  clearing-house.  It  was  the  custom  for 
Mr.  Herrick  to  lock  up  his  own  funds,  and 
simply  state  to  the  cashier  that  he  had  done 
so. 

"  '  According  to  a  carefully  arranged  plan, 
I  hypnotized  him  last  evening  and  com- 
manded him  to  take  all  the  money  and 
securities  he  had  in  his  possession,  after 
settling  with  the  clearing-house,  and  instead 
of  locking  them  in  his  vault  to  put  them  in 
a  bag,  of  course  taking  precautions  to  do 
this  when  no  one  was  observing  him,  and 
then  leave  the  bank  in  the  usual  manner. 

" '  He  was  to  take  a  carriage  and  drive 
directly  to  a  small,  unoccupied  house  which 
is  situated  on  the  corner  of  Blank  and  nyth 
streets. 

" '  It  was  my  intention,  as  I  had  gone  so 
far,  to  go  still  further.  I  knew  that  Mr.  Her- 


A    QUEER   COINCIDENCE.  143 

rick  would  bring  me  the  money  and  securi- 
ties, and  that  I  should  find  him  asleep  in  the 
house,  but  what  I  did  not  know  positively, 
and  what  I  feared  was,  that  he  might  not 
forget  what  he  had  done  -when  he  awoke. 
As  a  rule,  sensitives  obey  the  command  to 
forget,  but  in  the  course  of  my  various 
experiments  I  have  found  sensitives  who 
had  a  vague  idea  of  what  occurred,  perhaps 
nothing  tangible,  but  still  sufficient,  in  a 
case  like  this,  when  there  would  be  a  great 
row  about  the  lost  securities,  to  suggest  a 
possible  clue. 

"  *  It  is  a  very  cold  day,  six  degrees  be- 
low, I  think,  and  I  had  deliberately  intended 
to  leave  Mr.  Herrick  asleep  after  I  had  taken 
the  money  from  him  and  let  him  take  his 
chances,  sleeping  without  any  fire  or  cover- 
ing, in  an  hypnotic  condition,  with  the  tem- 
perature below  zero,  and  you  can  judge 
what  his  chances  would  have  been.  This 
scheme  I  thought  out  deliberately,  and  what 


144  A   QUEER   COINCIDENCE. 

seems  strange,  I  had  not  the  least  repugnance 
against  arranging  for  the  death  of  my  friend. 
After  I  had  once  made  up  my  mind  to  make 
him  steal  the  securities  his  disappearance 
seemed  to  be  the  only  way  to  insure  my 
safety.  Of  course  no  one  could  know  I  was 
connected  with  this  matter.  I  would  not  go 
near  the  bank,  and  unless  he  was  followed, 
which  was  most  unlikely,  as  he  had  been 
with  the  bank  some  years  and  was  a  thor- 
oughly trusted  official,  there  would  be 
absolutely  no  chance  of  my  detection.'" 

Watson  relighted  his  cigar,  which  had 
gone  out,  and  continued  — 

"  While  he  had  been  speaking  another  train 
had  arrived  with  a  lot  of  workmen  who  were 
busily  engaged  jacking  the  car  back  on  the 
rails.  The  train  was  about  to  return  to  Chi- 
cago, so  I  inquired  the  name  of  the  bank  and 
its  president,  and  the  address  of  the  house, 
writing  them  down  so  there  could  be  no  pos- 
sible mistake.  I  then  hastened  on  board  the 
train,  leaving  my  patient  under  the  care  of  Dr. 


A    QUEER    COINCIDENCE.  145 

Morse,  a  local  physician,  who  agreed  to 
notify  me  as  to  the  condition  of  the  man 
later  in  the  day. 

"  Upon  arriving  in  Chicago  I  immediately 
drove  to  the  bank,  but  found  it  closed.  I 
was  told,  however,  that  Mr.  Bartlet,  the 
president,  was  attending  a  corporation  meet- 
ting  in  an  office  in  the  same  building. 
I  immediately  hunted  him  up,  and,  upon 
hearing  my  story  he  hastily  ordered  a  car- 
riage and  we  drove  to  the  house  as  de- 
scribed. 

"  On  our  way  out  we  stopped  and  picked 
up  Dr.  Marsh,  who  as  you  know  is  very 
much  interested  in  such  matters.  It  was 
quite  a  long  drive,  but  we  found  the 
place  without  difficulty.  It  was  unoccu- 
pied, and  many  of  the  windows  were 
broken,  and  altogether  it  presented  a  very 
dilapidated  appearance,  such  as  the  cheap 
houses  on  the  outskirts  of  a  great  city  often 
do  after  having  been  unoccupied  for  a  year 


I.j.6  A   QUEER    COINCIDENCE. 

or  two.  \Ve  tried  the  door  and  found  it  un- 
locked. On  the  first  floor  the  rooms  were 
entirely  empty,  loose  papers  scattered  about, 
and  no  signs  of  any  one  having  entered  the 
house.  Upon  going  upstairs  we  found 
the  door  on  the  first  landing  at  the  head  of 
the  stairs  closed,  but  not  locked.  At  the 
back  of  the  room  was  a  cracked  wooden 
stool  and  a  dilapidated  hair  sofa,  which  had 
evidently  been  considered  too  used  up  to 
be  of  any  value.  Part  of  the  cover  was 
torn  away,  one  of  the  legs  was  broken, 
and  some  of  the  hair  stuffing  was  lying  scat- 
tered about  the  floor.  On  this  lounge  lay 
Mr.  Herrick  apparently  sound  asleep;  his 
lips  blue  with  cold,  his  face  pale,  and  the 
general  appearance  of  a  man  half  frozen  to 
death.  He  was  breathing  very  quietly, 
however,  and  his  heart  action  was  still  fairly 
good,  although  somewhat  slow.  By  his  side 
lay  a  small  bag,  which,  it  is  needless  to  say, 
was  pounced  upon  by  Mr.  Bartlet.  It  con- 


A   QUEER   COINCIDENCE.  147 

tained  some  valuable  securities,  and  a  great 
bundle  of  bank  bills  of  large  denomination. 
Both  Marsh  and  I  considered  Herrick's 
condition  as  decidedly  interesting  and  un- 
usual, and  we  were  both  of  the  opinion  that, 
as  part  of  the  story  had  proved  true,  it  was 
very  likely  the  whole  would  turn  out  just 
as  described. 

"  If  this  proved  to  be  the  case,  all  that  now 
remained  to  be  done  was  to  restore  Herrick 
to  his  normal  condition,  which  might  or 
might  not  be  easy  to  accomplish.  The  first 
thing  to  be  done  was  to  get  him  out  of  such 
a  low  temperature.  We  tried  various 
methods  of  restoring  consciousness,  but 
without  success.  What  we  did  not  like 
was  that  his  heart  action  was  gradually  be- 
coming weaker.  We  gave  a  hypodermic 
injection  of  strychnia,  and  the  heart  was 
soon  acting  in  a  much  more  satisfactory 
manner.  There  was  no  return  to  conscious- 


148  A    QUEER   COINCIDENCE. 

ness,  however,  so  taking  him  in  the  carriage 
we  drove  back  to  Dr.  Marsh's  house,  and 
arriving  there  we  all  turned  to  and  did  what 
we  could  to  restore  Herrick  to  conscious- 
ness. Now  that  he  was  in  a  warm  room 
the  drawn  expression  and  the  blue  look  left 
his  face,  but  otherwise  he  appeared  to  sleep 
as  soundly  as  ever.  The  heart  was  now  act- 
ing very  well,  and  aside  from  the  coma  the 
condition  of  the  patient  gave  us  no  cause 
for  anxiety.  As  time  went  on,  however, 
and  we  absolutely  failed  to  waken  him,  and 
the  heart  again  showed  signs  of  weakness, 
we  began  to  feel  somewhat  uneasy. 

"You  see,"  said  Watson,  "we  did  not 
know  what  suggestion  was  given  the 
patient;  these  post-hypnotic  suggestions  are 
peculiar  in  their  action  upon  some  sensi- 
tives. If,  as  it  is  fair  to  suppose,  this  man 
was  ordered  to  sleep,  he  should  in  the 
natural  course  of  events  sleep  for  a  number 
of  hours  and  then  awake,  after  passing  from 


A   QUEER   COINCIDENCE.  149 

the  hypnotic  sleep  to  the  normal  sleep  ;  but 
we  know  very  little  of  the  effect  on  some 
nervous  systems  of  post-hypnotic  sugges- 
tions. Another  thing,  in  many  cases  the 
patient  will  not  waken  or  cannot  be 
wakened  except  by  the  person  who  put  him 
to  sleep.  The  reason  for  this  is  plain  enough. 
Part  of  the  effect  on  the  mind  of  hypnotic 
suggestion  is  due  entirely  to  sleep.  The 
skilled  hypnotist  commands  one  of  his  sen- 
sitives to  sleep  under  certain  conditions. 
The  sensitive  expects  to  be  awakened  by 
the  same  voice  and  in  the  same  way,  and 
habit  and  association  have  fixed  in  his  mind 
certain  conditions  which  he  associates  with 
the  order  to  awake.  There  is  no  doubt 
whatever  that  Mr.  Herrick  heard  what  we 
were  saying  when  we  spoke  to  him  in  a  loud 
voice,  but  he  heard  it  without  understanding, 
much  as  a  person  in  a  sleepy  condition  hears 
noises  about  him  without  trying  to  compre- 
hend them.  It  is  undoubtedly  true  that  the 


150  A   QUEER   COINCIDENCE. 

man  who  put  Herrick  to  sleep  could  have 
wakened  him  in  a  moment,  while  we,  with 
all  our  knowledge  and  experience,  were 
unable  to  make  his  brain  regain  its  normal 
condition.  We  decided  to  let  him  sleep  ; 
and  if,  at  the  end  of  a  few  hours,  he  did  not 
regain  consciousness,  we  would  try  again 
what  we  could  do  to  assist  him,  of  course 
watching  the  heart  in  the  meanwhile  and 
using  nitro-glycerin  or  strychnia  if  indi- 
cated. 

"  At  that  moment  Herrick  suddenly  spoke, 
at  first  huskily  and  then  in  a  loud,  clear 
voice,  shouting,  '  Yes,  yes,  I  hear  you  ;  I 
am  awake.'  Then  he  sat  up,  asking  in  a 
dazed  way,  '  Where  am  I  ?  What  does  this 
mean?'" 

"  As  he  did  so  the  old-fashioned  clock  in 
the  hall  struck  the  hour  of  seven." 

The  queerest  part  of  this  story  is  sug- 
gested by  a  letter  received  from  Dr.  Morse 
the  next  day,  which  read  as  follows  : 


A   QUEER   COINCIDENCE.  151 

DEAR  WATSON  :  You  asked  me  to  write  you  about  the 
injured  man,  and  I  do  so  now  to  tell  you  he  is  dead. 
He  died  a  minute  or  two  before  seven  o'clock  last  eve- 
ning ;  I  know  the  hour  exactly,  because  I  was  watching 
him  at  the  time,  and  for  some  moments  he  had  been 
whispering  and  muttering  to  himself,  but  all  I  could 
catch  was  something  about,  "  I  withdraw  my  command  ; " 
when,  suddenly  raising  himself,  he  shouted,  "  Wake  up, 
wake  up  ! "  and  fell  back  dead  just  as  the  clock  in  the 
church-yard  struck  seven. 

I  should  be  much  interested  to  hear  whether  his  story 
was  true  or  not.  Drop  me  a  line  about  it  when  you 
have  time. 

Very  sincerely  yours, 

F.  MORSE. 


STORY  OF  AN  INSANE  SAILOR. 


"  'T^HAT  pocket-piece  of  yours,"  said  the 
-1-  doctor,  "  reminds  me  that  I  have  an 
interesting  one  of  my  own  ;  perhaps  you 
can  tell  me  what  it  is."  He  took  from  his 
pocket  a  silver  coin  and  handed  it  to  Jen- 
nings, as  he  spoke.  One  edge  had  been 
flattened,  and  a  hole  pierced  in  it. 

"Ah!  an  old  Spanish  piece,"  said  Jen- 
nings, "  evidently  of  the  time  of  Pope  Leo 
Fourth,  sometime  in  the  sixteenth  century. 
A  very  interesting  piece.  Where  did  you 
get  it  ?" 

"  There  is  a  curious  story  connected  with 
that  coin,"  meditatively  remarked  Dr.  Wat- 
son j  "perhaps  you  would  like  to  hear  it." 

We  had  been   dining  with  Watson   and 

152 


STORY    OF   AN    INSANE    SAILOR. 


'53 


were  now  comfortably  seated  in  the  library 
before  an  old-fashioned  open  fire.  It  was 
snowing  outside,  making  the  warm,  bright 
study  all  the  more  cheerful  by  contrast. 

"  Perhaps  you  remember,"  said  Watson, 
"  that  during  the  winter  of  1886  I  devoted 
much  more  of  my  time  than  usual  to  the  In- 
sane Asylum.  I  was  very  much  interested 
in  testing  the  value  of  hypnotism  for  insane 
patients,  especially  mild  cases  and  those 
having  illusions  and  insistent  ideas.  I  had 
been  quite  successful  in  one  case  —  a  woman 
who  had  tried  to  starve  herself  to  death 
under  the  impression  that  the  devil  com- 
manded her  not  to  eat  was  greatly  benefited 
by  post-hypnotic  suggestion.  Suggesting 
that  the  devil  would  not  come  any  more  in- 
duced pronounced  hysteria,  but  when  hyp- 
notized, and  told  that  the  devil  commanded 
her  to  eat,  instead  of  to  abstain  from  food, 
she  took  nourishment  readily,  and  soon  de- 
veloped an  extraordinary  appetite. 


1^4          STORY    OF   AN    INSANE    SAILOR. 

"  An  immediate  improvement  in  her  con- 
dition was  noticeable,  and  as  her  general 
bodily  health  improved,  the  illusions  became 
less  and  less  frequent,  and  she  was  dis- 
charged from  the  asylum  as  cured  in  less 
than  three  months." 

Watson  paused  and  gazed  meditatively  at 
the  end  of  his  cigar.  "  Ever  tried  to  hyp- 
notize an  insane  person,  Jennings  ?  " 

"  Not  that  I  remember." 

"  You,  Morris  ?  " 

"Can't  say  that  I  have." 

"  Hm  !  Well,  sometimes  you  succeed, 
and  sometimes  you  don't  ;  more  often  you 
don't.  There  was  one  patient,  a  man  by 
the  name  of  Allen,  who  had  been  a  sailor. 
He  was  subject  to  fits  of  extreme  melan- 
cholia, and  at  times  was  positively  danger- 
ous, as  he  imagined  some  one  was  trying  to 
poison  him. 

"  I  never  succeeded  in  hypnotizing  him, 
although  I  tried  repeatedly.  However,  I 


STORY   OF   AN    INSANE    SAILOR. 


155 


saw  him  every  day,  and  as  his  general 
health  improved,  his  attacks  of  melancholia 
became  less  frequent.  He  seemed  grateful 
to  me  for  taking  an  interest  in  him,  and 
often  talked  with  me  about  his  early  life 
and  the  out-of-the-way  countries  he  had 
visited.  Shortly  after  I  was  called  away 
and  did  not  return  to  the  asylum  for  two 
weeks,  and  when  I  did  go  back  I  found 
that  Allen  was  dead.  He  had  cut  his 
throat  one  afternoon  with  a  large  pocket- 
knife  and  made  a  mighty  clean  job  of  it, 
too. 

"Well,"  continued  the  doctor,  "among 
his  effects  they  found  a  package  addressed 
to  me,  which  contained  a  letter  and  a  silver 
coin.  The  coin  you  now  hold  in  your  hand, 
the  letter  I  have  here  in  my  desk." 

He  opened  a  drawer  and  took  out  a  large 
yellow  envelope  containing  a  number  of 
pages  of  closely  written  manuscript. 

"This      letter,"      said    Watson,    as     he 


156  STORY    OF    AN    INSANE    SAILOR. 

slowly  turned  over  the  pages,  "  contains  a 
story  so  strange  that  I  did  not  for  a  moment 
believe  it  had  any  foundation  in  fact;  but 
during  the  past  year  or  two  I  have  learned 
certain  things  which  have  caused  me  to 
change  my  opinion.  Whether  the  story  is 
true  or  not  we  will,  of  course,  never  know, 
but  I  now  believe  that  it  is  a  true  record 
of  events  which  actually  happened.  I  have 
made  some  inquiries  and  rind  that  the  places 
mentioned  do  exist,  or  did  at  the  time  this 
story  was  written,  and  —  but  never  mind; 
I  will  read  you  the  letter  and  you  can  form 
your  own  conclusions: 

"<DR.  S.  T.  WATSON: 

" '  DEAR  SIR  :  I  have  made  up  my  mind 
to  kill  myself,  but  before  I  die  I  wish  to 
make  a  confession  of  my  wrong  doings,  as 
he  insists  that  I  shall  and  I  dare  not  disobey 
him.  I  therefore  write  this  confession,  to 
be  read  by  you  after  I  am  dead. 


STORY   OF   AN   INSANE    SAILOR. 


157 


" i  You  tell  me  I  imagine  I  hear  the  voice 
and  see  the  man.  I  tell  you,  doctor,  you 
who  think  me  crazy  are  the  one  who  is 
deceived.  You  do  not  believe  in  telepathy 
and  thought-transference,  and  yet  I  could 
tell  many  times  when  you  looked  at  me  of 
what  you  were  thinking.  I  tell  you  that  I 
hear  Jim's  voice  as  plainly  as  I  ever  heard 
yours,  and  he  talks  to  me  and  tells  me  that 
he  will  never  leave  me  while  I  live,  and 
then  he  laughs.  Oh,  that  laugh  !  He 
comes  often  at  night  and  wakes  me  out  of 
a  sound  sleep  with  that  awful  laugh,  and 
then  he  whispers  to  me  to  go  to  sleep  again. 
Of  course  you  do  not  believe  in  spirits  or 
ghosts,  and  you  believe  I  am  crazy,  and  that 
the  half-invisible  form  of  my  dead  partner 
which  comes  to  me  and  talks  to  me,  and 
whose  voice  I  hear  as  plainly  as  I  ever 
heard  yours,  exists  wholly  in  my  imagina- 
tion. Well,  doctor,  you  have  been  kind  to 
me,  and  I  hope  and  pray  you  will  never 


158          STORY    OF   AN    INSANE    SAILOR. 

suffer  the  way  I   have   suffered  during  the 
past  three  years. 

"  'Just  three  years  ago  to-day  I  was  on 
board  the  "  Ada  Gray,"  a  small  schooner  off 
the  coast  of  Florida,  bound  for  the  Isthmus. 
There  were  seven  of  us  in  all,  including  the 
captain  and  mate,  the  latter  an  old  pal  of 
mine  who  had  arranged  to  get  me  in  as  one 
of  the  crew.  In  some  way  he  had  learned 
that  the  captain  was  to  take  with  him  some 
two  thousand  in  gold,  and  although  we  had 
no  plans,  we  intended  to  get  the  gold  in 
some  way.  On  our  way  down  we  had 
talked  over  many  schemes,  but  none  of 
them  seemed  satisfactory.  The  gold  was 
kept  in  a  small  fireproof  safe  in  the  cap- 
tain's cabin,  but  it  was  an  old-fashioned 
key-lock  affair,  and  we  did  not  anticipate 
much  trouble  from  that  quarter,  even  if  we 
could  not  find  the  key.  The  great  point 
was,  how  we  were  to  get  the  money  and 
get  away.  At  last  we  decided  to  drug  the 


STORY   OF   AN    INSANE    SAILOR.          159 

men's  coffee,  and  when  they  were  sleeping 
from  its  effects,  we  would  take  the  money 
and  leave  in  the  schooner's  yawl,  in  which,  as 
the  weather  was  very  calm  and  the  Florida 
coast  could  be  seen  in  the  distance,  we  should 
have  no  difficulty  in  making  the  shore. 

"  'Jim  had  overhauled  the  medicine  chest 
and  had  found  a  vial  containing  a  lot  of 
morphine  pills  marked  one-eighth  grain, 
and  as  neither  he  nor  I  knew  how  much 
morphine  it  took  to  drug  a  man,  he  watched 
his  opportunity  and  emptied  the  contents 
of  the  vial  into  the  coffee. 

"  '  After  supper  we  kept  on  deck  for  some 
time  waiting  results.  At  last  Jim  went  for- 
ward and  reported  everything  quiet  and  the 
men  apparently  all  asleep.  We  found  the 
captain  in  his  cabin  lying  on  his  bunk 
breathing  heavily.  The  key  to  the  safe  was 
in  the  captain's  pocket,  and  we  opened  it 
without  difficulty.  There  were  six  rolls  of 
twenty-dollar  pieces  marked  two  hundred 


l6o          STORY    OF    AN    INSANE    SAILOR. 

dollars  each,  eight  rolls  of  ten-dollar  pieces, 
and  a  bag  of  silver. 

"  '  We  took  the  money  and  some  other 
things  we  found  in  the  cabin,  including  a 
pair  of  revolvers,  a  double-barrelled  shot- 
gun, and  a  rifle,  and  put  them  in  the  boat, 
together  with  a  small  keg  of  water,  tinned 
meat,  and  a  bag  of  ship  biscuit.  After 
these  were  carefully  stowed  away  in  the 
yawl,  Jim  went  back  to  the  cabin,  while  I 
busied  myself  arranging  things  in  the  boat. 
He  soon  came  on  deck  again  bringing  sev- 
eral bottles  of  brandy,  and  coming  to  the 
side  of  the  schooner  reached  them  one  by 
one  to  me  over  the  side.  As  he  handed  me 
the  last  bottle  I  saw  the  burly  form  of  our 
negro  cook  rise  slowly  out  of  the  hatchway, 
rubbing  his  eyes  as  if  half  asleep.  Jim 
saw  my  stare  of  surprise,  and,  turning 
quickly,  faced  the  negro,  who  was  looking 
at  us  with  a  dazed  expression.  He  could 
not  have  drunk  of  the  coffee,  for  I  have 


STORY   OF  AN   INSANE   SAILOR.          161 

since  learned  the  amount  of  morphine  Jim 
put  in  the  pot  was  more  than  enough  to  kill 
the  entire  crew. 

"  'Jim  turned,  and,  walking  slowly  up  to 
the  man,  said  hoarsely  :  "  Go  down,"  at  the 
same  time  pointing  to  the  hatchway. 

" l  "  What  for  ?  "  asked  the  negro,  moving 
a  step  backward. 

"'"None  of  your  business  what  for;  go 
down,  I  tell  you." 

"  < "  I  don't  take  no  orders  from  you, 
nohow,"  answered  the  man.  "  Where's  the 
captain  ?  " 

"  '  Without  a  word  Jim  struck  him  full  in 
the  face  with  all  his  strength.  The  blow 
was  an  awful  one,  and  the  negro  staggered 
back,  and  would  have  fallen  had  not  he 
brought  up  against  the  foremast.  He 
roared  with  rage,  and  came  at  Jim  with  a 
rush  like  a  mad  bull.  Jim  bent  sideways, 
and  something  flashed  in  his  hand,  as  he 
struck  upwards  under  the  man's  arm. 


1 62          STORY   OF   AN    INSANE    SAILOR. 

" '  Instantly  the  negro  stumbled  forward, 
and  fell  on  the  deck,  and  then  sat  up  and 
began  to  cough.  He  coughed  incessantly, 
like  a  man  who  has  swallowed  something 
which  choked  him.  Jim  looked  at  him  a 
moment,  and  then,  without  a  word,  cast  off 
the  painter  and  jumped  into  the  boat. 
There  was  not  a  breath  of  wind,  so  we 
each  took  an  oar  and  pulled  towards  the 
faint  line  of  land  just  visible  in  the  west- 
ern horizon. 

"  '  The  schooner  lay  almost  motionless, 
with  the  silence  of  death  about  her.  The 
negro  had  stopped  coughing,  and  all  was 
still,  save  the  faint  creaking  of  the  masts 
and  spars  and  the  sounds  of  our  oars  in  the 
rowlocks. 

"  '  In  the  west  the  sun-painted  clouds  lay 
in  great  masses  of  gold  and  purple,  tinting 
the  sea  with  ever-changing  colors. 

"  '  "  Damn  pretty  sunset !  "  remarked  Jim, 
as  he  drew  in  his  oar,  and  bent  over  to  light 


STORY   OF  AN   INSANE   SAILOR.          163 

his  pipe,  and  then,  musingly:  "I  wish  I 
hadn't  had  to  kill  that  nigger." 

" '  Shortly  after  dark  a  gentle  breeze 
sprung  up  from  the  southeast,  and  we  put 
up  a  little  sail  we  had  brought  with  us. 

" '  Fowley  Rocks  light  was  in  plain  sight, 
and  about  midnight  we  rounded  Cape 
Florida,  and  entered  Biscayne  Bay,  and  by 
daylight  we  made  the  mouth  of  the  Miami 
River,  where  we  tied  up  to  a  small  pier, 
owned  by  a  man  named  Brickie.  On  the 
other  side  of  the  river  stood  a  long,  low 
stone  building,  which,  they  told  us,  was 
once  used  as  a  government  building,  and 
was  called  Fort  Dallas. 

" '  We  told  the  people  we  had  come  from 
Key  West,  following  the  coast  along  inside 
the  keys,  and  were  on  a  hunting  and  fishing 
trip.  Upon  inquiry  we  learned  that  there 
was  very  little  game  about  the  bay  except 
crocodiles,  but  that  we  could  get  splendid 
sport  by  going  up  the  river  into  the  ever- 


164     STORY  OF  AN  INSANE  SAILOR. 

glades  and  following  the  shore  line  norlh 
to  New  River.  They  advised  us  to  get  an 
Indian  to  go  with  us.  This  plan  suited  us 
exactly,  as  once  having  disappeared  in  the 
wilderness  we  could  come  out  at  some 
other  point,  and  having  assumed  new 
names  could  go  forth  into  the  world  in 
perfect  safety. 

"  i  Before  starting  we  bought  a  light  flat- 
bottomed  boat  for  use  in  shallow  water,  and 
after  rowing  up  the  river  a  few  miles  we 
made  camp  and  burned  the  yawl,  first 
breaking  her  up  with  our  axes.  This  took 
up  the  greater  part  of  the  day.  In  the  after- 
noon Jim  went  up  to  the  head  of  the  river 
and  reported  meeting  an  Indian  who  told 
him  of  a  large  island  which  was,  as  near  as 
he  could  judge,  about  thirty  miles  to  the 
north,  on  which  there  were  deer  and  tur- 
keys. 

"  *  We  had  plenty  of  provisions,  and  for 
three  days  we  pushed  our  boat  northward 


STORY   OF   AN    INSANE   SAILOR.          165 

among  the  islands  of  the  great  grassy  lake. 
In  many  places  the  water  was  so  shallow 
we  had  to  push  our  way  through  grass  and 
reeds.  We  noticed  a  great  many  white 
flowers  growing  on  the  banks  of  the  islands, 
and  water-lilies  were  abundant,  but  they 
had  no  smell. 

"  '  Towards  evening,  on  the  third  day,  we 
landed  on  a  large  island  on  which  there  was 
a  high  mound.  Hundreds  of  white  herons 
and  various  other  kinds  of  birds  were  nest- 
ing in  the  trees,  and  there  were  a  good 
many  ducks  about.  We  shot  some  of  the 
herons  and  cut  off  the  long  hair-like 
plumes,  but  the  flesh  was  strong  and  unpal- 
atable. The  ducks,  however,  were  very 
good. 

"'We  camped  on  the  mound,  which  was 
much  higher  than  the  rest  of  the  island,  and 
decided  to  stay  there  for  a  day  or  two. 
While  putting  up  the  tent  I  saw  something 
shine,  and  picked  up  a  silver  coin  which 


l66  STORY    OF   AN    INSANE    SAILOR. 

had  evidently  been  worn  as  a  medal,  as  one 
edge  had  been  flattened  and  a  hole  pierced 
in  it.  There  was  no  date,  but  it  was  evi- 
dently very  old. 

"  '  That  day  we  tried  fishing,  and  shot  sev- 
eral ducks.  We  had  but  one  shot-gun,  so 
took  turns  with  it  at  the  ducks. 

"  c  That  evening  Jim  produced  an  old  pack 
of  cards  from  his  pocket  and  suggested  a 
game  of  poker.  My  luck  went  against  me 
from  the  beginning,  and  when  we  stopped 
playing  I  had  lost  fully  two-thirds  of  my 
share.  The  next  morning  I  awoke  feeling 
remorseful  and  sulky,  and  demanded  that 
Jim  play  another  game  to  give  me  a  chance 
to  get  even.  He  assented  readily  enough, 
but  my  bad  luck  continued,  and  in  an  hour 
I  had  lost  all  of  my  money  and  had  nothing 
left  to  bet.  Jim  got  up,  taking  the  gun,  and 
went  down  to  the  boat  to  repair  a  leak 
which  had  bothered  us  the  day  before.  I 
sat  on  a  log,  inwardly  raging  and  cursing 


STORY  OF  AN  INSANE  SAILOR.    167 

myself  for  my  foolishness.  The  rifle  was 
leaning  against  the  log  near  me,  and  invol- 
untarily I  took  it  and  dropped  the  lever  to 
see  if  it  was  loaded.  It  was  empty,  and  the 
hammer  moved  back  and  forth  at  the  touch 
of  my  ringer.  Evidently  the  spring  was 
broken.  But  how  ?  Why  ?  I  felt  in  my 
pocket  for  my  revolver  with  feverish  haste. 
Gone.  Then  I  understood  ! 

lit  I  rose  and  walked  slowly  down  the 
slope  of  the  mound,  and  nearly  stepped  on 
a  large  rattlesnake  which  lay  coiled  up 
beside  a  palmetto  root.  I  looked  at  the 
snake  as  he  lay  there  watching  me,  rattling 
angrily  all  the  while,  and  then  I  looked  at 
Jim's  coat  which  hung  on  a  branch  near  by, 
and  at  the  doctored  rifle  in  my  hand,  and 
the  more  I  looked  the  more  wicked  thoughts 
came  into  my  mind.  I  glanced  towards 
Jim  ;  he  was  apparently  busy  with  the  boat, 
and  I  could  just  see  the  top  of  his  back  as 
he  bent  over.  I  hastily  fastened  one  of  the 


1 68  STORY    OF    AN    INSANE    SAILOR. 

dead  herons  to  a  stick  and  held  it  in  front 
of  the  snake,  which  immediately  struck  it 
in  the  breast,  and  then  uncoiled  and  slowly 
retreated  into  the  scrub.  Taking  two  pins 
from  my  coat,  T  inserted  them  into  the  holes 
made  by  the  fangs  of  the  rattlesnake,  and 
took  them  out  covered  with  blood  and 
poison.  In  a  few  minutes  this  dried,  and  I 
then  fastened  the  pins  inside  the  arm  of 
Jim's  coat  in  such  a  way  that  his  hand 
would  be  scratched  when  he  put  it  on. 

" '  This  done,  I  hung  the  coat  back  on  the 
branch  and  walked  off  a  little  way,  but 
feeling  more  than  half  inclined  to  go  back 
and  take  the  pins  out  again  while  there  was 
yet  time.  Perhaps  Jim  did  not  mean  to  kill 
me,  but  simply  wished  to  protect  himself 
against  treachery  on  my  part  ;  — but  then  I 
remembered  the  negro  and  the  morphine, 
and  —  well,  dead  men  tell  no  tales.  As  I 
turned  to  go  back,  I  saw  Jim  in  the  act  of 
taking  down  his  coat,  and  I  felt  a  queer 


STORY   OF   AN    INSANE    SAILOR.          169 

choky  sensation  in  my  throat  and  a  sort  of 
half  catch  to  my  breath  as  he  pushed  his 
arm  through  the  sleeve,  at  the  same  time 
putting  the  back  of  his  hand  to  his  lips  in  a 
way  that  could  only  have  one  meaning.  I 
watched  him  with  an  ugly  feeling  of  satis- 
faction, wondering  how  long  it  would  take 
for  the  poison  to  begin  to  take  effect. 

"'Jim  put  a  couple  of  sticks  on  the  fire, 
and  then  sat  down  on  a  log  and  commenced 
to  fill  his  pipe,  but  soon  laid  it  down. 
"  Curse  it  ! "  he  said  ;  "  I  feel  queer." 

" '  He  got  up  and  walked  up  and  down, 
rubbing  his  arm.  He  looked  at  me  in  an 
odd  sort  of  way  once  or  twice,  and  then 
went  into  the  tent  and  lay  down.  Shortly 
after  he  called  to  me,  and  on  my  going  to 
the  door  of  the  tent  he  tried  to  rise,  but  fell 
back  and  became  delirious,  laughing  and 
shouting  my  name,  and  muttering  to  him- 
self. He  breathed  with  difficulty,  and  in  a 
little  while  became  unconscious,  and  just  as 


1 70          STORY   OF   AN    INSANE    SAILOR. 

the  sun  was  sinking  over  the  faint  line  of 
trees  in  the  west  he  died. 

" '  I  took  down  the  tent  and  dug  a  hole 
and  buried  him  where  he  lay.  I  built  a 
huge  fire  and  sat  by  it  all  night  without 
closing  my  eyes.  Towards  morning  the 
moon  came  up  and  the  sounds  of  the  night 
noises  ceased,  and  as  soon  as  it  was  light  I 
put  the  gold  and  what  things  I  needed  in 
the  boat  and  made  haste  to  leave  the  island. 
I  paddled  for  two  or  three  hours  before  I 
noticed  that  the  sun,  which  had  been  to  my 
right  when  I  started,  was  at  my  left,  and  I 
knew  that  I  must  have  turned  the  boat 
around. 

"'  I  turned  about  and  paddled  on  steadily 
all  day  long,  but  night  found  me  with  no 
signs  of  dry  land  anywhere,  nothing  but  an 
unending  stretch  of  grass  and  water  as  far 
as  the  eye  could  reach. 

" i  When  it  grew  dark  I  lay  down  in  the 
bottom  of  the  boat  and  tried  to  sleep  ;  but 


STORY  OF  AN  INSANE  SAILOR.    171 

as  soon  as  I  closed  my  eyes  I  felt  cold  all 
over,  a  creepy  sort  of  cold,  and  heard  voices 
whispering.  At  first  I  told  myself  they 
were  not  voices,  'twas  a  trick  of  my 
imagination,  the  wind,  perhaps,  or  the 
rustle  of  the  grass  about  me  ;  but  then  I 
heard  Jim's  voice.  There  could  be  no  mis- 
taking his  horrid,  sneering  laugh  ;  it  made 
me  afraid,  but  do  what  I  would  I  could  not 
help  hearing  it.  I  stopped  my  ears  and 
wrapped  my  head  in  my  coat  ;  but  still, 
from  time  to  time,  I  could  hear  the  voices 
whispering,  and  Jim's  laugh,  and  at  times  I 
felt  cold. 

"  '  The  next  day  I  poled  and  paddled  until 
late  in  the  afternoon.  I  felt  very  hot,  and 
my  head  ached  as  though  it  would  split.  I 
had  a  pain  in  the  back  of  my  neck  and 
drank  a  great  deal  of  water.  I  knew  I  had 
some  sort  of  a  fever,  but  having  no  medicine 
I  could  do  nothing  but  push  on,  hoping  to 
find  my  way  to  dry  land, 


172 


STORY    OF    AN    INSANE    SAILOR. 


"'All  that  day  I  continually  heard  Jim's 
voice  laughing  at  me,  and  the  next  I  knew 
I  found  myself  in  an  Indian  camp,  and  was 
told  that  I  had  been  found  in  the  boat  sick. 
The  gold  was  gone ;  the  Indians  claimed  it 
was  not  in  the  boat.  One  of  them  seemed 
to  be  a  chief  and  wore  a  big  turban  on  his 
head  with  a  silver  band  around  it.  They 
told  me  his  name  was  Tom  Tiger. 

" l  And  now,  doctor,  good-by.  Jim  is 
whispering  to  me  again  and  telling  me  it  is 
time.  In  five  minutes  after  I  sign  this  I 
shall  be  dead.  I  shall  make  no  mistake.. 
My  knife  is  very  sharp. 

'"JOHN  ALLEN.'" 


THE    ELIXIR    OF    LIFE. 


"  TOEHOLD,"  said  Doctor  Watson,  "  the 

D  Elixir  of  Life!" 

Robinson  looked  up  from  his  writing 
and  assumed  an  expression  of  deep  interest. 

"Wonderful!  I  have  often  heard  of  it. 
Is  it  the  true  Elixir  vitce  of  the  ancients, 
or  a  new  and  more  subtle  compound?  " 

"Listen,  scoffer;  if  you  will  behave  with 
a  decorum  consistent  with  the  gravity  of 
the  subject,  I  will  explain  how  I  became 
the  possessor  of  this  wonderful  powder. 
Perhaps  in  your  life  of  seclusion  and  deep 
toil  you  may  not  have  noticed  this  adver- 
tisement which  has  appeared  for  the  last 
month  regularly  in  the  morning  paper?" 
'73 


174  THE  ELIXIR  OF  LIFE- 

W^atson  took  from  his  pocket-book  a  news- 
paper clipping  and  read  as  follows: 

"  METHUSELAH    CLUB. 

"  The  object  of  this  club  is  to  enable  its  members  to 
live  to  be  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  old.  All  per- 
sons desiring  to  become  members  should  apply  for 
particulars  to  Rengee  Sing,  No.  -  -  Twenty-seventh 
street,  City." 

"Are  you  a  member?  "  inquired  Robin- 
son. 

"Not  as  yet,  but  Jones  is,  and  it  was 
through  Jones  that  I  came  into  possession 
of  this  mysterious  drug.  It  seems  that 
Jones  decided  after  reading  the  advertise- 
ment that  he  would  like  to  become  a  mem- 
ber of  the  club.  Jones'  health  is  not  very 
good,  as  you  know,  and  he  called  on  Ren- 
gee  Sing,  and  the  result  of  the  interview 
was  that  he  came  away  with  this  small  vial 
of  the  wonderful  Elixir,  for  which  he  paid 
twenty  good  dollars.  He  was  so  impressed 


THE    ELIXIR   OF    LIFE.  175 

by  the  gentleman  who  sold  him  the  powder 
that  he  came  to  me,  as  his  medical  adviser, 
to  ask  my  opinion  as  tp  the  advisability  of 
taking  some  of  it.  He  brought  with  him  a 
paper  purporting  to  be  the  translation  of 
an  ancient  papyrus  manuscript,  the  original 
of  which  was  in  Thibetian  or  Sanscrit  and 
which  was  ingenious,  if  fraudulent.  He 
told  me  a  rambling  story  of  how  this  Ren- 
gee  Sing  had  procured  this  powder,  and 
the  whole  thing  was  so  peculiar  that  I  de- 
cided to  interview  the  gentleman  myself; 
but  first  I  made  a  point  of  getting  our  friend 
Strauss  to  analyze  the  powder.  His  report 
of  the  analysis  shows  it  to  be  composed 
entirely  of  chloride  of  sodium  or  common 
salt,  with  a  small  quantity  of  some  unknown 
vegetable  matter  which  gives  it  a  yellow 
color.  Armed  with  this  information,  I 
called  upon  Rengee  Sing  at  his  office  on 
Twenty-seventh  street." 

"  You  interest  me,"  said  Robinson,  glanc- 


176  THE    ELIXIR    OF    LIFE. 

ing  at  his  work,  and  palpably  attempting 
to  suppress  a  yawn. 

Watson  arose,  and  gently  but  firmly  re- 
moved the  pen  from  Robinson's  fingers; 
he  then  placed  a  book  on  the  papers,  and 
continued: 

"  The  office  was  distinctly  oriental,  and 
there  were  numerous  Bokhara  and  other 
good  rugs  scattered  about;  besides  there 
were  gorgeous  divans,  and  the  air  was  heavy 
with  peculiar  Eastern  odors.  I  was  admitted 
by  a  gigantic  negro  dressed  in  oriental  cos- 
tume, and  another  negro  arose  as  I  entered, 
and  stood  respectfully  at  the  inner  door.  I 
asked  for  Rengee  Sing,  and  was  informed 
that  he  would  'be  at  liberty  in  a  few  mo- 
ments,'' and  i  would  I  sit  down  and  wait,'  all 
in  very  good  English  from  one  of  the  gigan- 
tic sable  guardians  who  bowed  me  in.  I 
was  kept  waiting  but  a  few  moments,  when 
the  door  opened  and  a  small  black-bearded 
Hindoo  came  softly  into  the  room  dressed 
in  the  ordinary  European  costume.  There 


THE    ELIXIR    OF    LIFE.  177 

in  the  ordinary  European  costume.  There 
was  nothing  striking  about  him  except 
his  eyes,  which  were  really  the  most  won- 
derful eyes  I  have  ever  seen  in  a  human 
being.  With  the  gentle  manner  peculiar  to 
his  race  he  smiled  and  asked  me  to  take  a 
seat  near  the  window." 

"Is  it  possible?"  said  Robinson,  lan- 
guidly, lighting  a  cigarette. 

"  Is  what  possible  ? "  inquired  Watson, 
frowning  slightly. 

"  Why,  that  he  asked  you  to  take  a  seat 
near  the  window." 

"  Robinson,"  remarked  Watson  sternly, 
"remember  that  your  mental  infirmities  will 
not  prevent  my  punching  your  head  if 
you  interrupt  me  with  any  more  foolish 
questions." 

Robinson  grinned,  and  after  ostentatiously 
placing  a  paper-weight  within  easy  reach, 
Watson  continued. 

"  I  inquired  if  he  was  the  person  to  whom 
I  should  apply  for  information  about  the 
Methuselah  Club. 

"  He  answered  that  he  had  the  honor  of 
being  the  president  of  the  club,  and  would 
be  glad  to  supply  me  with  all  information 
in  his  power.  Did  I  wish  to  join? 


178  THE    ELIXIR    OF    LIFE. 

" '  A  friend  of  mine,'  I  said,  '  has  already 
become  a  member,  and  the  description  of  a 
wonderful  powder  has  interested  me,  like- 
wise the  history  of  the  powder.' 

"  The  Hindoo  smiled  gently,  showing  his 
white  teeth,  and  said  that  he  was  not  sur- 
prised at  my  curiosity.  He  then  went  to  a 
desk  and  took  from  it  the  printed  circular 
which  Jones  had  already  shown  me,  and 
which  was  supposed  to  be  a  translation  of 
the  ancient  manuscript.  It  is  the  one  I 
hold  in  my  hand;  please  glance  over  it 
before  I  continue  my  story." 

Robinson  took  the  paper. 

"  What  is  this  hieroglyphic  affair  at  the 
top  here,"  he  asked. 

"  That,"  said  Dr.  Watson,  "  is  probably  a 
copy  of  some  very  ancient  amulet  or  talis- 
man. The  fish  at  the  bottom  was  often 
used  to  designate  '  Dag]  or  the  master;  next 
above  we  have  the  Solomon's  seal,  then  the 
four  Chaldaic  letters  Jod-He-  Van-He-Iaho, 


THE   ELIXIR   OF   LIFE.  179 

which  is  *  The  Deity;'  the  other  symbols 
are  strange  to  me." 

"  Ah,"  said  Robinson,  "  a  weird  sort  of 
thing,  is  it  not  ?  " 

"  Don't  be  sarcastic,  read  it,"  senten- 
tiously  remarked  Watson. 

Robinson  did  so. 


" '  Let  him  who  dares  to  live  forever  take  of 
the  powder,  but  let  him  think  of"  Aum  : " 
but  speak  it  not  on  pain  of  death;  let 
absolute  "  muckta"  be  known  to  him;  let 
him  study  the  secret "  mantras"  and  pon- 
der on  the  mysteries  of"  Vach  ;"  let  him 


l8o  THE    ELIXIR    OF    LIFE. 

also   say   each   day  in  his   prayer  "  Aum 

ma-ni  pad-me  hum" 

"  '  He  who  takes  of  the  powder  three 
times  should  acquaint  himself  with  "  ~~]  [  |" 
the  marcaba  and  the  lah  gash,  then  he  will 
never  die.  Even  though  he  wished  to  live 
a  thousand  years,  so  it  shall  be  ! '  "  : 

"  Well,"  remarked  Watson,  "  what  do 
you  think  of  it  ?  " 

"  Fake,"  answered  Robinson. 

"  Verily,  out  of  the  mouths  of  babes,  etc," 
said  Watson,  "  but,  O  learned  friend,  you 
have  not  heard  the  whole  story.  Listen.  I 
asked  Rengee  Sing  if  he  would  be  good 
enough  to  explain  to  me  fully  about  the 
powder  and  especially  how  and  where  he 
obtained  it. 

"  (  My  dear  sir,'  he  said,  '  I  see  you  are  a 
scientific  man,  and  it  always  gives  me  great 
pleasure  to  meet  such,  and  to  explain  to 
them  as  fully  as  possible  how  I,  Rengee 

1  Translation  of  the  sacred  manuscript  found  with  the  "  Elixir  of 
Life." 


THE   ELIXIR   OF   LIFE.  181 

Sing,  obtained  possession  of  one  of  the 
most  valuable  treasures  in  the  world,  the 
Elixir  of  Life;  but  before  doing  so  I  must 
enroll  your  name  among  the  members  of 
our  Society;  in  fact,  one  of  the  rules  of  the 
Society  is  that  unless  a  person  becomes  a 
member  we  can  tell  him  nothing,  beyond 
allowing  him  to  read  the  circular  which 
you  have  already  seen.  The  initiation  fee 
is  five  dollars,  and  you  are  at  liberty  not  to 
take  the  powder  if  you  desire  not  to  do  so 
after  you  have  become  a  member,  but  if 
you  wish  to  become  a  member  in  high 
standing,  and  to  take  the  powder,  which 
will  insure  you  a  length  of  life  far  beyond 
that  of  ordinary  mortals,  an  additional  fee  of 
twenty  dollars  is  charged  for  the  powder.' 

"  I  decided,"  continued  Watson,  "  that 
the  experience  was  worth  five  dollars,  so 
I  intimated  that  I  should  be  delighted  to 
become  a  member  of  the  Society,  and 
handed  Mr.  Sing  five  dollars,  whereupon 


182  THE    ELIXIR    OF    LIFE. 

he  wrote  me  a  receipt  and  gave  me  a  mem- 
ber's card,  which  stated  that  I  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Methuselah  Club  of  the  second 
class,  and  entitled  to  receive  the  Elixir, 
and  to  become  a  member  of  the  first  class 
upon  the  further  payment  of  twenty  dollars 
any  time  within  the  next  ten  days.  After 
which,  if  I  had  not  been  made  a  member  of 
the  first  class,  my  name  should  be  dropped 
from  the  rolls. 

"  Rengee  Sing  was  the  embodiment  of 
courtesy  when  he  bowed  low  and  handed 
me  my  receipt. 

"  '  My  dear  sir,'  he  said,  '  I  shall  now  be 
happy  to  explain  to  you  anything  that  I  can.' 

"'I  would  like,'  I  said,  '  if  possible,  to  see 
the  original  papyrus  which  I  understand  was 
found  with  the  Elixir,  and  I  also  would  like 
to  learn  more  fully  the  details  as  to  how  and 
where  this  Elixir  was  obtained.' 

"  Rengee  Sing  bowed,  and,  going  to  the 
corner  of  the  room,  opened  a  small  fire- 


THE   ELIXIR   OF   LIFE.  183 

proof  safe,  taking  from  it  a  roll  of  what 
proved  after  being  unrolled  to  be  an 
ancient  papyrus  manuscript  written  in  the 
Sanscrit  language.  As  far  as  I  could  make 
out  it  seemed  to  be  the  original  of  which 
the  printed  circular  was  a  translation.  It 
certainly  appeared  ancient  enough. 

" i  This  manuscript,'  said  Sing,  '  and  the 
box  of  powder  was  obtained  by  my  brother 
and  given  to  me  at  his  death.  He  died 
from  the  effects  of  a  fall  from  his  horse, 
which  broke  three  ribs  and  otherwise  in- 
jured him  internally.  He  never  would  have 
died  except  from  the  accident,  as  he  had 
taken  several  doses  of  the  Elixir.  Just  how 
long  it  will  enable  a  man  to  live  we  do  not 
know,  but  certainly  one  hundred  and  fifty 
years  and  perhaps  even  two  hundred  years. 
He  obtained  it  in  the  following  manner: 
My  brother  had  long  been  desirous  of  visit- 
ing Lassa,  which  is,  as  you  know,  the  won- 
derful capital  of  Thibet,  but  was  unable  to 


184  THE   ELIXIR   OF    LIFE. 

do  so  until  a  few  years  before  his  death, 
when  he  accompanied  a  Hindoo  who  went 
there  for  the  purpose  of  making  certain 
reports  to  a  foreign  government.  His  name 
I  am  not  at  liberty  to  disclose,  but  his  report 
was  simply  signed  Punjaub  A.B.  My  dear 
brother  described  Lassa  to  me  very  minutely, 
and  from  all  accounts  it  must  be  the  most 
wonderful  city  in  the  world.  As  you  proba- 
bly know,  no  European  or  Christian  has  ever 
been  allowed  to  enter  within  its  walls.  Ac- 
cording to  my  brother's  description  the  city  is 
situated  in  a  fertile  plain  on  the  Sampo  river 
some  six  hundred  miles  north  of  Calcutta, 
and  has  a  population  of  fully  sixty  thousand 
persons.  The  streets  are  wide,  and  the 
houses  have  their  walls  whitened  and  the 
frames  of  the  doors  and  windows  colored 
red  and  yellow. 

"'Nearly  west  of  the  city,  connected 
with  it  by  a  splendid  avenue,  is  the  moun- 
tain of  Buddha,  where  now  stands  the 


THE   ELIXIR   OF   LIFE.  j85 

temple  of  the  Grand  Lama.  This  temple 
is  four  stones  high,  and  therein  dwells 
the  Grand  Lama  and  his  High  Priests. 
Some  idea  of  the  magnificence  of  this 
temple  may  be  obtained  when  I  tell  you 
that  its  great  pillars  are  covered  with 

[plates  of  pure  gold.  The  Grand  Lama  can 
live  forever,  and  many  people  believe  he 
does  so,  but  he  really  does  not.  After  a 
certain  time  he  reincarnates  himself  into  a 
new  body.  All  of  the  priests,  however,  are 
very  old.  It  is  claimed  the  Pandita  is  at 
least  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  old.  The 
Grand  Lama  has  about  him  two  priests  of 
the  highest  grades,  one  the  Pandita  and  the 
other  Tchoiji.  The  Grand  Lama  sits  upon 
an  altar  or  throne  for  hours  at  a  time, 
clothed  in  gold-woven  cloth  and  jewels  of 
fabulous  value.  Over  his  head  is  a  magnif- 
icent peacock's  tail  composed  entirely  of 
gold  and  precious  stones.  It  is  the  custom 
of  the  Grand  Lama  to  receive  persons  who 


l86  THE    ELIXIR    OF    LIFE. 

desire  to  receive  his  blessing  at  certain 
hours  of  the  day.  For  a  small  amount  of 
money  one  is  allowed  to  bow  before  him; 
for  a  little  more  one  may  touch  his  gar- 
ment, and  receive  his  silent  blessing  ;  but 
for  the  sum  of  twenty  rupees  he  will  speak 
to  the  person  and  touch  him  with  a  little 
wand.  The  Punjaub  A.B.  in  describing  his 
interview  states  that  the  Grand  Lama  talks 
in  a  hoarse  voice  which  he  tries  to  make 
as  much  as  possible  like  God's. 

*"  It  was  during  his  visit  to  the  temple  that 
my  brother  learned  of  the  wonderful  treas- 
ures preserved  there,  fabulous  stories  being 
told  about  a  huge  emerald  with  an  ancient 
inscription  engraved  upon  it, — the  mystic 
seal  of  the  first  Lama,  which  had  been 
handed  down  for  ages,  together  with  the 
greatest  treasure  of  them  all,  known  as  the 
Elixir  of  Life. 

"  (  The  wonderful  powder  was  and  is  used 
by  the  high  priests,  some  of  whom  are  of 


THE    ELIXIR   OF   LIFE.  187 

great  age.  It  is  supposed  to  have  been 
brought  into  Thibet  by  King  Srongb  Tsan, 
during  the  seventh  century,  and  that  it 
originally  came  from  Nepaul.' 

"'How  did  your  brother  procure  it,'  I 
asked. 

"'By  bribing  one  of  the  priests.  My 
brother  was  wealthy,  and  being  very  de- 
sirous of  procuring  some  of  this  wonderful 
powder,  he  tried  to  buy  some  of  it.  Under 
no  circumstances,  however,  would  they 
listen  to  him  or  even  allow  him  to  see  it. 
He  succeeded,  however,  as  I  said,  in  bribing 
one  of  the  priests,  paying  him  a  large  sum 
of  money,  several  hundred  rupees,  I  believe, 
and  was  shown  the  sacred  chests  containing 
this  powder,  and  other  treasures,  including 
precious  manuscripts  and  some  jewels  of 
great  value.  The  powder  was  contained  in 
five  little  gold  boxes,  of  beautiful  workman- 
ship. While  examining  them  they  heard 
a  door  close  and  the  sounds  of  footsteps  in 


l88  THE    ELIXIR    OF    LIFE. 

the  passageway.  The  priest  became  very 
much  frightened  and  begged  my  brother  to 
replace  the  boxes  and  manuscript  at  once, 
and  was  so  agitated  that  he  did  not  notice 
my  brother  when  he  slipped  one  of  the  gold 
boxes  into  his  pocket.  The  person,  who- 
ever he  was,  passed  on  down  the  passage- 
way, and  as  soon  as  they  dared  they  hur- 
riedly left  the  vault.  Luckily  for  my 
brother  he  left  Lassa  with  the  Punjaub  that 
evening,  and  never  learned  whether  the 
theft  was  discovered  or  not.  Probably  his 
powder  would  have  done  him  little  good 
had  it  been  so  and  had  he  been  suspected.' 

"  (  But  how,'  I  asked,  '  do  you  know  that 
this  Elixir  will  really  prolong  life?  ' 

"  Sing  smiled  sweetly,  and  said,  '  I  my- 
self, my  dear  sir,  am  a  living  proof  of  that; 
I  am  one  hundred  and  ten  years  old,  and  to- 
day there  are  in  New  York  some  sixty  men 
who  will  live  to  that  age,  having  taken  the 
powder,  unless  they  die  from  some  form  of 


THE    ELIXIR   OF   LIFE.  £89 

disease.  This  elixir  will  not  protect  them 
against  poison  or  diseases  where  the  poison 
germ  has  entered  the  system.  That  is  im- 
possible; but  it  acts  upon  the  nerve  centres 
and  upon  the  blood  corpuscles  in  such  a 
wonderful  way  that  there  is  no  degenera- 
tion. The  person  simply  lives  along  the 
same  as  he  would  between  the  ages  of 
thirty  and  forty;  he  is  always  the  same. 
He  may  die  from  many  causes,  but  it  would 
not  be  from  old  age.' 

"  *  My  friend,'  I  said,  '  took  the  liberty  to 
analyze  some  of  this  powder.' 

"  '  Ah!  And  may  I  inquire  the  result  of 
his  analysis?' 

"  A  peculiar  yellow  light  came  into  those 
eyes,  and  although  he  smiled  —  Have  you 
ever  seen  a  caged  tiger  languidly  looking 
at  the  crowd  of  people  in  front  of  his  cage 
suddenly  discover  a  dog  near  him?" 

"  I  don't  know  that  I  have,"  said  Robinson. 

"  Well,    if  you    do   you   will    notice   the 


190  THE    ELIXIR   OF    LIFE. 

same  yellow  light  flash  into  his  eyes,  and 
the  sudden  change  of  expression  that  I  saw 
in  the  eyes  of  our  friend  Sing.  It  was  gone 
in  a  moment,  however,  and  he  was  again 
smiling  sweetly. 

"  *  I  understand  he  found  it  to  consist 
principally  of  common  salt.' 

"'Quite  so,'  answered  Sing;  'but  he 
must  have  discovered  that  it  also  contained 
something  else?  ' 

" l  That  is  true,'  I  answered,  '  there  was 
a  small  amount  of  vegetable  matter  which 
gave  it  a  yellow  color.' 

"  *  That  is  the  true  Elixir,'  said  Sing; 
'  salt  is  merely  necessary  for  the  results. 
You,  as  a  scientific  man,  know  that  the 
poison  which  kills  so  quickly  from  the  fang 
of  a  cobra  and  the  ordinary  white  of  an  egg 
can  hardly  be  distinguished  by  the  chemist. 
He  finds  them  both  to  be  albumen.' 

" '  Why,  then,  should  one  kill  and  the 
other  be  harmless  ?  '  I  asked. 


THE    ELIXIR   OF    LIFE.  19 1 

"  '  Simply  the  minute  "  something  else  " 
which  is  contained  in  the  snake  poison  and 
which  is  held  in  solution  by  the  albumen.' 

"'Have  you  any  other  proof  of  the  power 
of  this  Elixir  ? '  I  inquired. 

"  '  My  dear  sir,  I  trust  you  do  not  question 
the  truth  of  my  statement  regarding  my 
own  age.' 

"  He  frowned  slightly,  and  those  wonder- 
ful eyes  of  his  glanced  like  lightning  towards 
the  two  huge  attendants  standing  in  plain 
sight  in  the  hallway. 

" '  Not  at  all,'  I  hastened  to  assure  him. 
'  It  all  seems  so  wonderful  to  me,  you  must 
excuse  my  apparent  incredulity.' 

" '  The  most  natural  thing  in  the  world,' 
smiled  Sing  with  grave  courtesy,  *  but  I  will 
let  your  own  eyes  banish  any  doubt  you 
may  have  as  to  the  wonderful  properties  of 
this  strange  powder. 

" '  Ashmed,'  he  called,  <  ask  my  son  to 
come  here  a  moment  if  he  will  be  so  good.' 


I92 


THE    ELIXIR    OF    LIFE. 


"  The  attendant  who  had  spoken  to  me 
when  I  entered  immediately  disappeared, 
and  in  a  moment  a  back  door  opened  and 
the  bent  figure  of  a  very  old  man  entered 
the  room  and  spoke  to  Sing  in  a  weak  voice. 
The  language  was  evidently  Hindustani, 
but  I  caught  a  word  here  and  there  which 
sounded  familiar.  Sing  spoke  to  him 
sharply,  and  turning  to  me  said,  '  This  is 
my  son;  he  is  nearly  eighty  years  old,  but 
refuses  to  take  the  powder  on  account  of 
his  religious  principles  —  he  belongs  to  the 
sect  who  believes  that  to  die  is  be'cter  than 
to  live,  that  his  spirit  will  become  incarnate 
in  another  body,  and  in  his  next  life  he  will 
be  at  least  a  Kobtchie.' 

"  My  eyes  must  have  betrayed  my  incre- 
dulity. 

u  '  You  do  not  doubt  that  he  is  my  son  ?  ' 
sweetly  asked  Mr.  Sing. 

"  '  Certainly  not,'  I  answered. 

" '  I    trust,    then,    that   I    shall     have    the 


THE   ELIXIR   OF    LIFE. 


193 


pleasure  of  furnishing  you  with  some  of 
the  wonderful  powder?  There  is  not  very 
much  of  it  left,  but  luckily  it  requires  a  very 
small  dose.  I  have  enough  probably  to 
supply  one  hundred  men  to  insure  them 
existence  for  one  hundred  and  fifty  years. 
When  that  is  gone  the  supply  can  never  be 
replenished.' 

"  He  sighed. 

"<  Thank  you,'  I  answered.  <I  shall 
think  the  matter  over  and  in  all  probability 
give  myself  the  pleasure  of  calling  upon 
you  again.' 

"  Then  I  came  away,  being  bowed  out  by 
the  sable  attendants  with  all  ceremony 
possible.  There  !  What  do  you  think  of 
that  ?  " 

"Do  you  intend  to  return  and  purchase 
the  powder  ?  "  asked  Robinson. 

"  Perhaps,"  answered  Watson,  "  but  I 
think  I  will  wait  awhile  and  see  if  Jones 
lives  to  be  one  hundred  and  fifty ! " 


THE    VOODOO    IDOL 


JONES  lay  on  the  sofa  watching  the 
consul  mix  a  long,  cool  drink  of  Apol- 
linaris  water  and  crushed  sour-sop.  His 
arm  pained  him  a  good  deal  and  the  band- 
ages felt  hot  and  uncomfortable.  By  his 
side  was  a  little  table  on  which  were  piled 
numerous  articles  in  a  manner  common  to 
mankind,  among  which  were  a  bottle  of 
whiskey,  a  revolver,  several  books,  and  a 
plate  containing  some  bananas  and  sapodil- 
lias.  A  light  breeze  stirred  the  curtains 
behind  him,  and  under  the  awning  he  could 
see  the  long  stretch  of  green  palms  and 
waving  cocoanuts,  back  of  the  city.  A 
faint  white  line  indicated  the  road  to  Le- 

coup. 

i94 


THE   VOODOO    IDOL.  jgij 

"  I  tell  you  what,  old  man,"  said  the  con- 
sul, as  he  poured  the  mixture  from  the 
shaker  into  the  tall,  thin  glasses,  "  you  are 
almightly  lucky  to  get  out  alive,  and  you 
took  big  chances.  Stealing  a  god  of  the 
Voodoo  priests  is  about  as  dangerous  an  ex- 
periment as  playing  with  fire  over  a  barrel 
of  gunpowder.  From  your  description  I 
should  judge  the  place  you  found  it  was 
about  fifteen  miles  back  of  Gantier." 

Jones  nodded  in  silence. 

"  Well,"  continued  the  consul,  "  it  was 
somewhere  in  that  vicinity  they  killed  that 
Frenchman  last  year,  and  how  they  ever 
let  you  get  out  alive  I  don't  know.  They 
meant  to  kill  you  fast  enough,  tried  to 
poison  you  at  Gantier,  and  knocked  out 
that  servant  of  yours.  You  escaped  by  not 
drinking  the  coffee.  Then  some  one  shot  at 
you  on  the  road,  and  even  then  you  did  not 
have  sense  enough  to  throw  away  the  idol; 
but  even  if  you  had  I  don't  know  that  it 


196  THE    VOODOO    IDOL. 

would  have  made  any  difference.  Then 
the  day  before  yesterday  they  put  a  bullet 
through  your  arm  at  Lecoup,  and  if  old 
Chabeau  had  not  gone  himself  with  you 
part  of  the  way,  I  do  not  believe  you  would 
ever  have  reached  here  alive.  What  on 
earth  made  you  monkey  with  that  idol  any- 
way? " 

Jones  explained  that  he  could  not  re- 
sist the  temptation  to  steal  it.  He  had 
been  camping  on  the  banks  of  a  nearly  dry 
stream,  ten  miles  or  more  east  of  Gantier, 
where  he  had  found  the  little  humming- 
bird, Mellissuga  minima,  the  smallest  bird 
in  the  world,  very  abundant.  He  had  also 
trapped  a  specimen  of  the  extremely  rare 
Solenodofi)  and  being  anxious  to  procure 
more  he  had  stayed  there  for  several  days. 
Within  half  a  mile  of  his  camp  was  a  small 
stone  tower  open  at  the  sides,  in  the  mid- 
dle of  which  stood  a  little  idol  on  a  sort 
of  pedestal.  This  little  idol  was  about 


THE   VOODOO   IDOL. 


I97 


eighteen  inches  high  and  was  carved  out  of 
stone,  the  eyes  oddly  enough  being  bone. 
Jones  had  cast  longing  glances  on  this  idol, 
but  did  not  dare  to  touch  it,  or  in  fact  to  go 
into  the  tower,  as  the  natives  were  sullen 
and  suspicious,  and  on  more  than  one  oc- 
casion showed  signs  of  being  decidedly 


Jones  saw  enough  to  confirm  his  im- 
pression that  these  people  were  a  bad  lot, 
and  one  dark  night  he  "  folded  his  tent  like 
the  Arabs  and  silently  stole  away,"  taking 
with  him  as  a  souvenir  the  little  idol,  which 
he  had  carefully  rolled  in  a  blanket  and 
packed  on  one  side  of  his  pack-horse  to 
balance  his  box  of  specimens  on  the  other. 
Fear  of  possible  unpleasant  consequences 
had  caused  Jones  to  ride  fast,  but  he  had 
been  followed  and  three  separate  attempts 
made  on  his  life  by  unknown  persons.  The 
last  one  resulted  in  a  bullet  through  the 
upper  part  of  the  left  arm.  He  was  safe 


198  THE    VOODOO    IDOL. 

enough  now,  however,  as  he  remarked, 
there  being  little  likelihood  of  danger  while 
under  the  protection  of  the  American  consul 
in  the  city  of  Porto  Prince. 

"  Don't  you  be  too  sure  of  that,"  said  the 
consul.  "  There,  try  that  and  see  how  you 
like  it." 

Jones  sipped  the  cool  mixture;  it  seemed 
like  nectar  to  him  in  his  feverish  condition. 
The  bullet  which  had  passed  through  his 
arm  had  made  a  wound,  which,  while  not 
in  itself  serious,  had  left  him  weak  and 
feverish. 

"  Yes,"  continued  the  consul,  "  you  were 
mighty  lucky  to  get  off  as  you  did.  You 
may  not  know  it,  but  right  here  in  Hayti 
the  people  in  the  interior  are  as  savage  and 
bloodthirsty  as  any  Central  African  tribe. 
Most  of  the  inhabitants  are  descendants  of 
negroes  brought  from  the  Gold  Coast  many 
years  ago.  They  have  reverted  to  their 
original  wild  state,  keeping  up  many  of  the 


THE    VOODOO    IDOL. 


I99 


ancient  customs.  Mixing  as  they  have  with 
the  Indians  of  the  interior,  the  present  race 
is  even  worse  than  their  ancestors.  From 
Toussant  TOverture  in  1804,  when  he  first 
ruled,  to  Hyppolite  Florvil  and  Salomon, 
the  island  has  been  the  scene  of  continuous 
insurrection,  intrigue,  and  murder. 

"  Salomon  was  probably  the  best  of  them 
all.  He  was  an  immense  negro,  some  six 
feet  four  inches  tall,  with  a  pock-marked 
face,  who  had  received  an  education  in 
Paris  and  married  a  Frenchwoman.  He, 
like  the  rest,  however,  was  superstitious 
and  cruel  at  heart.  Hyppolite  was  a  Voodoo 
priest  and,  it  is  said,  an  anthropophagist. 
The  people  of  the  interior  have  an  intense 
hatred  for  the  white  man,  and  still  retain 
many  of  the  barbarous  customs  of  the 
savages  of  the  African  interior. 

"  The  Voodoo  dance  is  presided  over  by  a 
high  priest,  who  usually  commands  a  goat  or 
a  hen  to  be  killed,  but  in  some  of  the  more 


200  THE   VOODOO   IDOL. 

important  ceremonies  a  child  is  murdered, 
and  its  blood  mixed  with  the  tafia  and  drunk 
by  the  dancers.  The  high  priest  is  called 
Papoloy.  Every  two  years  after  the  dance 
of  the  moon  a  human  sacrifice  is  ordered  ; 
generally  a  young  girl  is  killed  and  eaten. 
You  probably  ran  up  against  one  of  the 
Voodoo  gods,  and  the  large  stone  in  front 
was  undoubtedly  the  sacrificial  stone.  How 
you  ever  got  away  alive  passes  my  compre- 
hension. They  evidently  thought  that  you 
would  try  to  leave  in  the  day-time,  and  had 
things  all  arranged  for  taking  a  shot  at  you 
somewhere,  but  your  nocturnal  skedaddle 
knocked  their  plans  galley  west.  There  is 
one  thing  dead  sure,  those  Voodoo  priests 
are  bad  medicine,  as  we  used  to  say  out 
West,  and  you  want  to  keep  your  weather- 
eye  open  until  you  are  safe  on  board  a 
steamer  and  out  of  the  harbor.  I  wouldn't 
give  five  cents  for  your  life  if  you  walked 
about  the  streets  of  Porto  Prince.  When 


THE   VOODOO   IDOL.  2OI 

the  time  comes  to  leave  I  will  have  you 
smuggled  on  board.  The  authorities  would 
wink  at  your  assassination,  but  they  would 
not  openly  countenance  it." 

Jones  remarked  wearily  that  he  had  begun 
to  believe  it  might  be  as  well  for  him  to 
rest  quietly  in  the  consulate,  and  not  give 
them  another  chance. 

The  soft  flower-scented  breeze  blew 
softly  in  through  the  open  window  and  was 
soothing  to  Jones.  Lying  there  on  the 
lounge  with  his  eyes  closed,  he  soon  fell 
asleep,  and  the  consul  left  him  to  attend  to 
his  various  duties.  When  Jones  awoke  he 
lay  in  a  sort  of  drowsy  condition  —  half 
asleep  and  half  awake.  Through  his  partly 
open  eyes  he  looked  through  the  open  door 
leading  out  on  the  broad  piazza.  There 
was  a  chair  in  front  of  the  door,  and  over 
the  top  of  this  he  saw  a  face  and  a  pair  of 
very  black  eyes  looking  at  him  intently. 
For  a  moment  he  imagined  it  was  some 


202  THE    VOODOO    IDOL. 

freak  of  his  imagination,  as  the  face  was  as 
still  as  though  it  was  carved  in  wax. 
Right  in  line  with  Jones'  eyes,  and  within  a 
foot  of  his  half  extended  arm,  was  the  little 
table,  and  the  handle  of  the  revolver  seemed 
to  stand  out  as  though  placed  there  for  his 
especial  benefit.  That  was  certainly  real, 
and  it  required  a  very  slight  movement  for 
his  fingers  to  close  over  the  pistol  handle; 
but  he  did  not  move  and  lay  watching  the 
figure,  which  began  to  rise  slowly  and  devel- 
oped into  the  form  of  a  large,  ugly  looking 
negro.  Jones  remembered  particularly  noti- 
cing a  white  scar  across  the  cheek  just 
under  the  eye.  The  man  was  not  looking 
at  him  now,  but  was  glancing  about  with  the 
stealthy  look  of  a  hunted  animal.  At  the 
same  time  he  drew  from  under  his  coat  a 
long,  unpleasant-looking  knife.  As  he  did 
so  Jones  lifted  his  pistol,  and,  aiming 
hurriedly  at  the  breast,  fired.  The  man 
dropped,  grasping  at  the  chair  as  he  did  so, 


THE  VOODOO    IDOL. 


203 


but  immediately  rose  to  his  feet,  swaying 
unsteadily.  Bang!  went  Jones'  pistol  again. 
This  time  the  negro  did  not  fall,  but  stood 
seeming  half  dazed,  steadying  himself  by 
holding  on  to  the  back  of  the  chair.  Jones 
fired  again,  and  at  the  report  the  man 
clapped  his  left  hand  tightly  over  his  heart, 
and  with  a  muttered  imprecation  threw  the 
knife  at  Jones  just  as  he  fired  his  fourth 
shot,  the  thud  of  the  knife  driving  deep 
into  the  wood  close  to  Jones'  head  being 
followed  by  the  sound  of  a  falling  body  on 
the  hard  floor.  As  the  consul  ran  into  the 
room  followed  by  one  of  his  men  he  found 
Jones  sitting  on  the  lounge,  pale  and  weak 
from  excitement  and  fever. 

"  Lucky  you  had  the  pistol,"  remarked 
the  consul;  "might  have  been  unpleasant. 
See  that  gummy  green  stuff  on  the  knife? 
Well,  that  is  poison,  and  a  mighty  bad 
poison,  too;  one  little  scratch —  But  all's 
well  that  ends  well  ;  the  steamer  is  in, 


204  THE    VOODO°    IDOL. 

and  if  I  were  you  I  would  make  a  bee  line 
for  the  pier,  and  get  on  board  just  as  soon 
as  the  Lord  will  let  you  !  " 

Jones  rose  with  some  difficulty  and  went 
out  upon  the  wide  balcony.  On  the  blue 
waters  of  the  bay  he  saw  a  large  steamer, 
and  at  her  stern,  floating  in  the  breeze,  the 
most  beautiful  flag  in  the  world,  the  Stars 
and  Stripes. 

The  effect  on  him,  in  his  half  hysterical 
condition,  was  to  make  him  want  to  cry 
and  cheer  at  the  same  time.  The  room  he 
had  just  left  was  dark  in  contrast  to  the 
bright  sunshine  outside;  but  he  could  see 
the  knife  and  the  dead  body  of  the  negro, 
from  which  a  narrow  dark  red  streak  was 
slowly  making  its  way  across  the  floor. 

"  We  can't  go  any  too  quick  to  suit  me," 
said  Jones. 


AN  ARIZONA   EPISODE. 


WENDELL  HARRISON  was  a  club 
man  with  no  ambition  in  life  beyond 
making  his  small  income  pay  his  club  fees, 
and  leave  enough  for  him  to  live  in  the  man- 
ner peculiar  to  young  men  of  his  class.  His 
one  hope  in  life,  as  he  often  told  his  partic- 
ular crony,  was  to  find  a  rich  wife,  and  it 
seemed  to  Harrison  that  chance  had  played 
into  his  hands  when  he  received  an  invi- 
tation from  old  John  Stiversant  to  join  his 
party  on  a  trip  to  the  Grand  Canon  in 
Northern  Arizona. 

Harrison  had  met  old  Stiversant  on  the 
yacht  of  a  mutual  friend  a  few  weeks  before, 
and  knowing  how  to  make  himself  agreeable 

he  had  done  so  to  the  best  of  his  ability, 
305 


2C>6  AN    ARIZONA   EPISODE. 

with  the  result  that  he  had  been  asked  to 
make  one  of  a  party  on  this  western  trip  in 
Mr.  Stiversant's  private  car. 

"  Good  luck  to  you,  old  man,"  said  his 
chum  as  he  was  leaving  the  club  on  his  way 
to  the  station.  u  Go  in  and  win." 

"  Trust  me  for  that,"  answered  Harrison. 

The  trip  out  proved  a  delightful  one. 
Miss  Nellie  Stiversant,  the  young  lady  who, 
Harrison  had  decided,  was  the  most  likely 
catch,  did  not  prove  as  easy  as  he  imagined. 
While  charming  and  agreeable,  she  had  evi- 
dently seen  more  or  less  of  the  world,  and 
was  not  to  be  gathered  in  by  the  first  man 
who  made  up  his  mind  he  would  like  to 
have  her  ornament  his  home.  Likewise, 
she  was  a  girl  with  common  sense,  and 
knowing  her  position  and  advantages  did 
not  lose  her  head  when  a  man  showed  an 
inclination  for  her  society.  In  fact,  just 
before  the  party  arrived  in  Flagstaff  she  had 
made  it  very  evident  that  she  did  not  care 


AN    ARIZONA   EPISODE. 


207 


for  serious  attentions  from  any  one.  She 
was,  however,  of  a  decidedly  romantic 
nature,  and  Harrison  pondered  deep  and 
long  as  to  the  best  method  of  gaining  her 
affections.  Late  that  evening  he  was  read- 
ing a  sensational  novel,  when  suddenly  he 
laid  it  down  and  a  far-away  look  came  into 
his  eyes. 

"  By  Jove,"  he  muttered,  "  the  very  thing — 
on  this  very  road  too.  Whether  the  story 
is  true  or  not,  it  is  reasonable  enough, 
although  a  trifle  dramatic,  but  that  is  what 
is  wanted  to  attract  a  girl  like  Nell.  She 
don't  care  for  me  and  never  will,  and  all  she 
wants  is  excitement  and  novelty,  but  if  she 
thinks  I  saved  her  life  or  risked  my  own  in 
protecting  her,  there  might  be  a  chance. 
In  this  story  the  chap  had  led  rather  a 
tough  life,  but  had  reformed,  and  the  road- 
agents  recognized  him  and  knew  he  meant 
business.  He  got  pretty  well  shot  up,  but 
the  whole  thing  cast  a  halo  around  him, 


208  AN   ARIZONA   EPISODE. 

which  would  undoubtedly  attract  any  ro- 
mantic girl.  Damn  it,  why  couldn't  I  do  it? 
It  is  that  or  nothing,  the  trip  will  be  over 
in  two  weeks,  and  it  is  pretty  evident  that 
I  am  not  in  it  unless  something  extraor- 
dinary happens." 

II. 

The  saloon  was  pretty  well  filled  with  a 
sprinkling  of  miners,  Mexicans,  and  ranch- 
ers. Men  in  blue  overalls,  flannel  shirts, 
and  wide-brimmed  hats  were  playing  the  dif- 
ferent games  of  chance  or  standing  in 
groups  in  front  of  the  bar.  A  harsh  brass- 
sounding  piano  on  a  raised  platform  at  the 
end  of  the  room  was  being  played  by  a 
short-haired  individual  in  a  dress  suit,  and 
a  young  lady  who  evidently  did  not  object 
to  the  calsomining  process  to  aid  nature 
was  singing  a  topical  song.  In  the  corner 
stood  Wendell  Harrison  surrounded  by  four 
rough-looking  men,  who  seemed  very  much 
interested  in  what  he  was  saying. 


AN    ARIZONA   EPISODE. 


209 


"  Now  I  think  you  understand  thoroughly 
what  is  required,"  said  Harrison.  "  I  am  to 
pay  you  five  dollars  each  now,  and  twenty 
dollars  each  when  the  job  is  done,  likewise 
if  it  comes  off  successfully  and  the  bluff 
works  I  am  to  give  you  twenty  dollars 
more  upon  our  return  to  Flagstaff.  Don't 
forget  to  carry  out  the  plan  exactly  as  we 
have  agreed.  When  I  spring  from  the 
coach  waving  my  pistol  and  firing  blank 
cartridges,  one  of  you  is  to  shout,  *  Fight- 
ing Harrison,  by  God  ! '  and  shoot  two  or 
three  times  as  you  run.  The  thing  is  easy, 
but  requires  a  little  judgment.  I  do  not 
care  where  you  stop  the  stage.  Stop  it  any 
old  place,  but  not  too  near  Flagstaff.  I 
shall  be  alone  in  the  coach  with  an  old  man 
and  two  young  girls,  so  there  is  not  the 
slightest  danger,  and  I  will  see  that  the  old 
man  is  unarmed." 


210  AN   ARIZONA    EPISODE. 

III. 

"  Say,  Jimmie,  I  must  tell  yer  something, 
but  let  me  larf  first  Say,  I  nearly  fell 
down  in  a  fit.  I  am  going  to  tell  yer  all 
about  it,  but  don't  call  me  a  liar,  or  I'll  kill 
yer.  What  do  yer  think  ?  Oh,  Lord,  how 
my  stomach  aches!  —  what  do  yer  think? 
Wait  a  minute  —  I'll  tell  yer  in  a  minute, 
let  me  larf  it  out  now,  or  I  shall  drop  down 
right  here! 

"  Say,  I  sat  in  that  booth  over  there  hav- 
ing a  quiet  drink,  and  what  do  yer  think? 
A  dude  in  the  next  booth  commenced  put- 
ting up  a  job  with  four  ducks;  one  of  them 
is  Mexican  John  and  the  other  is  Brady,  our 
assistant  bar-keeper  here.  As  far  as  I  can 
make  it  out  Brady  got  the  three  other 
ducks.  Say,  wait  a  minute!  I  don't  believe 
I  ever  will  stop  larfin'.  What  do  yer 
think  ?  this  dude  is  going  up  to  the  Canon 
on  my  next  trip,  and  is  going  to  have  these 


AN   ARIZONA   EPISODE.  211 

four  fellers  stop  the  stage  to  put  up  a  bluff 
on  his  girl  to  show  what  a  fighter  he  is,  and 
he  is  to  give  um  twenty  dollars  each. 
He  is  going  to  jump  out  and  pull  his  gun 
and  clean  out  the  crowd,  and  then  go  back 
and  bask  in  the  sunshine  and  admiration  of 
the  young  girls.  Oh,  Lord!  The  skunk 
don't  care  how  much  he  scares  the  girls  and 
the  old  man  who  are  goin*  along,  but  all  he 
wants  is  to  pose  as  a  fighter  from  away 
back.  But  say,  Jimmie,  what  do  yer  think? 
I  have  been  thinkin'  this  thing  over,  and  I 
don't  believe  his  little  picnic  will  transpire. 
He  calculates  to  blow  in  eighty  dollars  to 
make  a  monkey  of  himself,  and  I  am  thinkin' 
that  we  can  use  that  eighty  dollars  in  our 
business  and  teach  the  fellow  a  good  lesson 
all  ter  wonce.  What  breaks  me  up  more 
than  anythin'  is  that  he  told  Brady  to  hunt 
me  up  and  tell  me  on  the  quiet  that  there 
was  a  reformed  desperado  going  with  me 
who  used  to  be  known  by  the  name  of 


212  AN    ARIZONA   EPISODE. 

'  Fightin'  Harrison.'     Worked  me  into  the 
job   too,    see  ?     What  do  yer  think  ?  " 

IV. 

The  stage  was  slowly  toiling  up  a  dusty 
hill  some  five  miles  from  Flagstaff.  The 
road  was  rough  and  the  day  was  warm. 
The  stage-driver  let  the  horses  take  things 
easy,  and  from  time  to  time  shook  with 
suppressed  emotion.  "  I  hope  I  may  die," 
said  he  to  himself,  "  if  this  ain't  the  damn- 
dest." 

In  the  back  seats  the  two  young  girls, 
the  old  manj  and  the  would-be  hero  were 
enjoying  the  scenery  and  the  novelty  of  the 
trip  in  spite  of  the  dust.  Suddenly  three 
men  sprang  into  the  road,  and  a  loud  voice 
commanded  the  stage  to  "  hold  up." 

"  What  is  the  matter  ? "  asked  Nellie  ex- 
citedly. 

"  Don't  be  afraid,"  said  Wendell,  pressing 
her  hand,  "  remember  I  am  with  you." 


AN    ARIZONA   EPISODE.  213 

A  rough-looking  man  appeared  at  the 
side  of  the  stage. 

"Is  your  name  Harrison?"  he  said,  ad- 
dressing Wendell. 

"  It  is,"  answered  Harrison  boldly; 
"  what  do  you  want  ?  " 

"  I  have  a  bill  here  for  eighty  dollars 
against  you,  which  will  have  to  be  paid 
or  you  will  have  to  get  out  and  go  back  to 
town  with  me." 

"  What  do  you  mean  ?  "  gasped  Harrison. 

"Just  what  I  say,  young  man;  your  name 
is  Wendell  Harrison,  isn't  it?  You  used  to 
be  known  here  by  the  name  of  '  Fighting 
Harrison,'  didn't  you  ?  " 

"  Certainly  not,  you  have  the  wrong 
party,"  answered  Harrison  indignantly. 

"Well,  I  don't  know  about  that;  didn't 
somebody  tell  you  that  this  fellow  was 
4 Fighting  Harrison,'  Bill?" 

"They  certainly  did,"  answered  the 
stage-driver. 


214  AN    ARIZONA    EPISODE. 

"  It  is  all  a  mistake,"  said  Harrison. 

"  Mistake  or  not,  you  will  have  to  pay  or 
go  back  to  town  with  us  ;  that  is  all  there  is 
to  it.  I  believe  you  are  the  Harrison  I  want." 

"  Oh,  Mr.  Harrison,"  said  Nell,  "  do  pay 
this  man  and  let  us  go  on  ;  you  can  easily 
recover  the  money  when  you  go  back  to 
town." 

"  Yes,"  said  Mr.  Stiversant,  "  that  cer- 
tainly is  the  best  way  to  settle  the  matter; 
it  is,  undoubtedly,  a  case  of  mistaken  iden- 
tity, but  this  man  is  evidently  acting  in  good 
faith,  and  you  will  have  no  difficulty  in 
straightening  matters  upon  your  return  at 
Flagstaff." 

Harrison's  face  was  very  red,  and  he 
looked  and  acted  ugly;  but  this  man  evi- 
dently meant  business,  and  there  was  no 
way  out  of  it  but  to  pay  the  money,  which 
he  did  with  a  very  bad  grace,  taking  a  re- 
ceipt made  out  to  Wendell  Harrison,  alias 
"  Fighting  Harrison  of  Arizona." 


AN  ARIZONA  EPISODE.  2IC 

"  An  exciting  incident,"  said  Nell,  as  the 
party  rode  away. 

"  Yes,"  said  Harrison,  "  but  one  that 
might  just  as  well  have  been  left  out  of  the 
programme." 

The  stage  moved  on,  but  Harrison  seemed 
uneasy  ;  every  few  minutes  he  mopped  his 
face  with  his  handkerchief  and  pressed  his 
hand  to  his  head  as  if  in  pain.  Visions  of 
the  little  reception  committee  some  few 
miles  ahead  were  constantly  in  his  mind. 
What  would  he  say  and  do  when  the  stage 
was  stopped,  and  he  received  his  cue  to 
spring  out  and  fire  off  his  six-shooter,  espe- 
cially as  he  had  only  fifteen  dollars  left  in 
his  pocket.  What  would  these  pseudo-gen- 
tlemen of  the  road  do  to  him,  if,  after  his 
little  exhibit  of  bravery,  he  failed  to  wind  up 
the  melodrama  by  settling  with  the  actors  ? 
He  didn't  care  to  find  out,  and  his  mind 
was  bent  now  in  deciding  the  best  way 
to  get  back  to  Flagstaff.  He  continued 


2l6  AN   ARIZONA   EPISODE. 

mopping  his  face,  and  once  or  twice  he 
groaned. 

"  What  is  the  matter?  "  asked  Mr.  Stiver- 
sant;  "  are  you  ill?  " 

"  I  fear  so,"  answered  Harrison  faintly. 
"  I  have  a  dull  pain  in  my  head  and  I  feel 
faint." 

"  Oh,  let  us  go  back,"  said  Nell,  "  it  is 
only  five  miles,  and  we  can  start  again  to- 
morrow just  as  well." 

"  Perhaps  it  would  be  as  well,"  said  Har- 
rison weakly;  "  I  fear  I  am  going  to  be  ill." 

In  the  privacy  of  a  room  at  the  hotel  Har- 
rison hastily  manufactured  an  urgent  telegram 
calling  him  at  once  to  San  Francisco  to  see 
a  sick  uncle,  and  had  barely  time  to  explain 
matters  and  express  his  deep  regret  at  being 
forced  to  leave  the  party  at  such  short 
notice. 

An  hour  later  he  lay  back  in  a  luxurious 
chair  in  the  smoking  compartment  of  the 
California  Limited,  and  gazed  out  of  the 


AN   ARIZONA   EPISODE. 


2I7 


windows  at  the  vast  desert  plains  through 
which  they  passed.  His  eyes  had  a  far-away 
look  in  them,  and  ever  and  anon  he  sighed. 
Far  up  the  Grand  Canon  road  late  that 
evening  Brady  and  his  three  companions 
still  sat  watching  sadly  for  the  stage  which 
came  not.  There  they  had  sat  in  the  burn- 
ing sun  without  food  or  water  since  ten 
o'clock  that  morning.  They  did  not  speak 
to  each  other,  but  occasionally  they  cursed, 
sometimes  the  birds,  sometimes  the  inani- 
mate things  about  them.  At  times  they 
thought  of  Harrison  —  but  what  their 
thoughts  were  no  one  will  ever  know. 


ONE  TOUCH   OF   NATURE. 


"  T)RETTY   good    cigar    this,"  remarked 

J-    the  Cowboy. 

The  Eastern  man  nodded. 

"  Nowadays  we  can  buy  good  ones  out 
where  I  live,  but  'twa'n't  very  long  ago  when 
good  cigars  were  as  rare  out  there  as 
buffaloes  are  now  round  Kansas  City." 

"The  enormous  increase  in  population  in 
some  of  your  Western  cities  is  astonishing," 
remarked  the  Eastern  man. 

The  Cowboy  glanced  at  him  with  an 
amused  smile.  The  Eastern  man  smiled 
back  good-naturedly. 

"What's  the  joke?"  he  asked. 

"  Oh,    nothin',"    answered    the    Cowboy, 

218 


ONE   TOUCH    OF   NATURE. 


2I9 


"  only  I  was  thinkin'  maybe  you  didn't  live 
out  West." 

"  No,  I  am  a  New  Yorker,"  answered  the 
Eastern  man. 

"  Well,  I  guess  they  raise  pretty  good 
men  in  both  places,"  remarked  the  Cow- 
boy. 

"  Our  late  war  proved  that,  I  think." 

The  train  had  stopped,  but  there  were  no 
signs  of  a  station,  although  two  or  three 
rather  dilapidated  houses  and  a  typical 
Western  saloon  could  be  seen  a  short 
distance  ahead. 

"  Wonder  what  we  are  stopping  here 
for,"  remarked  the  Cowboy  ;  "  it  strikes  me 
we've  been  here  a  pretty  long  time." 

Just  then  the  porter  passed  the  door  of 
the  smoking  compartment,  and  the  Cowboy 
called  to  him  : 

"  Say,  porter,  what's  the  matter  ?  Seems 
to  me  we  have  been  stoppin'  here  a  whole 
lot.  What's  the  name  of  this  metropolis  ?  " 


220  ONE   TOUCH    OF   NATURE. 

"  It's  mighty  lucky  you've  got  whole 
necks,"  answered  the  porter.  "  The  eccen- 
tric, or  something  about  the  engine,  is 
broke,  and  we  came  mighty  near  having  a 
bad  accident.  They've  sent  on  for  another 
engine." 

"  That's  pleasant,"  remarked  the  Eastern 
man.  "  How  long  do  you  think  we  shall 
have  to  stay  here  before  the  other  engine 
arrives  ?  " 

"  Give  it  up,"  said  the  porter.  "  Maybe 
an  hour,  maybe  two  ;  can't  tell  exactly. 
The  train  conductor  will  be  along  pretty 
soon  and  he  will  know  all  about  it." 

"  Guess  I'll  have  to  appoint  myself  a 
committee  of  one  to  investigate,"  remarked 
the  Cowboy. 

He  arose  and  went  out  on  the  platform 
of  the  car,  followed  by  the  Eastern  man. 
They  climbed  down  and  walked  forward  to 
where  they  saw  a  crowd  gathered  about  the 
engine.  The  eccentric  rod  had  broken 


ONE   TOUCH    OF    NATURE.  22I 

short  off,  and  had  the  engine  not  been  slow- 
ing up  at  the  time,  the  result  might  have 
been  serious. 

The  two  men  strolled  down  the  track  for 
a  short  distance,  and  the  Cowboy  discovered 
a  small  colony  of  prairie  dogs.  Several  of 
the  comical  little  creatures  were  sitting  on 
their  hind  legs  on  the  mounds  beside  their 
holes  ready  to  disappear  at  the  least  sign  of 
danger.  Occasionally  one  would  run  from 
one  hole  to  another  a  short  distance  away, 
usually  diving  out  of  sight,  to  reappear  again 
in  a  few  moments  when  satisfied  that  there 
was  no  immediate  cause  for  alarm. 

The  Cowboy  amused  himself  by  listlessly 
throwing  small  stones  at  the  little  animals. 
After  a  few  moments  of  this  he  turned  to 
the  Eastern  man  and  said: 

"  Say,  I  am  goin'  to  take  a  little  stroll  over 
yonder  towards  that  luxurious  mansion  and 
get  a  drink  from  the  well.  Want  to  go 
along?" 


222  ONE    TOUCH    OF    NATURE. 

"  With  pleasure,"  answered  the  Eastern 
man. 

The  two  strolled  slowly  towards  the 
house,  which  was  decidedly  in  need  of  re- 
pair. The  fence  surrounding  it  was  broken 
down  in  many  places,  weeds  and  grass  filled 
the  little  yard  in  which  there  were  still  evi- 
dences of  some  past  attempts  at  ornamenta- 
tion in  the  way  of  flower-beds,  and  the  whole 
place  gave  evidence  of  poverty  and  lack  of 
care.  On  the  porch  was  seated  a  girl  appar- 
ently between  twelve  and  fourteen  years  of 
age.  She  was  hugging  an  immense  shaggy 
dog  and  crying  as  if  her  heart  would  break. 

"  What's  the  matter,  sis  ?  "  sympathetically 
inquired  the  Cowboy. 

"  Oh,  sir  (sob),  Jake's  goin'  to  kill  my 
Rover." 

«  What  for  ?  " 

The  sobs  subsided  a  little  and  the  girl 
looked  up,  wiping  her  eyes  on  her  torn 
apron. 


ONE    TOUCH    OF    NATURE.  223 

"  Why,  he  bited  Jake  because  he  tried  to 
kiss  me  and  I  didn't  —  want  him  to  —  and 
they  are  goin'  to  come  and  kill  him." 

"  Who  is  goin'  to  come  and  kill  him  ?  " 

"  The  feller  he  bited  —Jake." 

"  There,  don't  cry,  little  un  ;  seems  to  me 
the  purp  did  the  proper  caper.  What  do 
you  think,  pardner  ?  " 

"  In  my  opinion,"  answered  the  Eastern 
man,  "  the  dog's  action  was  decidedly  laud- 
atory." 

"  And  yer  think  same  as  I  do  that  the  pup 
hadn't  ought  to  be  killed  for  doin'  it  ?  " 

"  Decidedly  not." 

"  Say,  sis,  ain't  yer  got  any  friends  to  sort 
of  stand  off  the  feller  as  allows  to  do  the 
killin'  ?  " 

"  No,  sir,  nobody  except  father,  and  he 
—  drinks  sometimes  and  don't  care  for 
Rover,  and  he  says  he  don't  want  no 
trouble." 

"  Ain't  yer  got  no  one  else  ?  " 


224  ONE    TOUCH    OF    NATURE. 

"No,  sir;  nobody  but  Rover.  Mother's 
dead  and  I  ain't  got  nobody  but  Rover.  Oh, 
dear  me!" 

The  girl  buried  her  face  in  the  shaggy 
coat  of  her  friend  and  sobbed. 

The  Cowboy  sat  down  on  the  step  beside 
her;  the  dog  eyed  him  inquiringly,  but  evi- 
dently decided  he  was  a  friend  and  wagged 
his  tail  slightly. 

"Don't  cry,  my  girl;  brace  up,  now; 
perhaps  they  won't  kill  him  after  all." 

"  Oh,  yes,  they  will.  Jake  is  over  in  the 
saloon  now;  I  saw  him  go  in.  He'll  do  it 
sure;  he  hates  Rover." 

"May  I  speak  to  your  lap-dog?  Will  he 
tear  me  up  much  if  I  pat  him?"  inquired 
the  Cowboy. 

"  I  wouldn't  fool  with  him,  sir;  Rover 
don't  like  strangers." 

The  Cowboy  snapped  his  fingers  at  the 
dog  and  called  to  him: 

"  Come  here,  Rover." 


ONE   TOUCH    OF   NATURE.  225 

The  splendid  animal  walked  solemnly  to 
him  and,  resting  his  head  on  his  knee, 
looked  up  steadily  into  his  face. 

"  Don't  seem  to  be  too  savage  nor  nothin' 
—  pretty  decent  sort  of  dog." 

"Oh,  he  is,  sir;  he  is  just  the  sweetest, 
lovingest  dog  that  ever  lived.  I  had  him 
when  he  wa'n't  no  bigger  than  a  coon,  and 
couldn't  eat  nothin'  but  milk,  and  he  loves 
me,  don't  you,  Rover?  and  I  love  him,  and 
he's  all  I've  got  to  love  in  the  world,  and 
they're  goin'  to  kill  him.  Oh,  Rover, 
Rover,  what  shall  I  do?  what  shall  I  do?" 

"  Now,  sis,  tell  us  about  the  row  —  did 
the  dog  begin  the  trouble?" 

"  Oh,  no,  sir;  Jake  came  along  this  morn- 
ing and  I  was  settin'  here  playin'  with 
Rover,  and  Jake  he  grabbed  me  and  tried  to 
kiss  me,  and  I  put  up  a  holler  and  Rover 
bited  him  in  the  leg.  Jake  swore  and 
wanted  to  kill  him,  but  he  didn't  darst  to, 
and  he  didn't  have  no  gun;  so  he's  gone 


226  ONE    TOUCH    OF    NATURE. 

home  to  get  his  gun  and  he'll  be  back  pretty 
quick  and  he's  goin'  to  kill  him." 

The  girl  had  stopped  crying,  but  little 
hysterical  sobs  choked  her  from  time  to  time 
as  she  talked. 

The  Cowboy  pulled  the  dog's  ears  gently 
and  the  animal  responded  by  licking  his 
hand. 

"  Seems  to  me,  pardner,  that  Jake  ain't 
actin'  quite  white  in  this  deal." 

"  It's  an  outrage,"  warmly  responded  the 
Eastern  man. 

"  I  see  two  fellers,"  continued  the  Cow- 
boy, gently  stroking  the  dog's  head,  "  comin' 
around  the  corner  of  the  house;  maybe  we'd 
better  ask  'um  please  not  to  hurt  the  dog." 

"  I  agree  with  you,  most  decidedly." 

The  girl  caught  sight  of  the  men  and 
uttered  a  cry  of  fear.  Seizing  Rover  by  the 
collar,  she  attempted  to  drag  him  inside  the 
house,  but  the  dog  braced  himself  and 
growled  savagely,  facing  the  newcomers. 


ONE   TOUCH    OF   NATURE.  227 

"  Say,  pard,"  remarked  the  Cowboy 
quietly,  "suppose  they  are  impolite?" 

"  Well." 

"Can  you  fight?" 

"  I  can  try." 

"Bully  for  you,  pard;  that's  the  stuff! 
Shake." 

The  two  men  shook  hands  warmly. 
Jake  and  his  companion  were  now  very 
near,  and  as  they  came  up  Jake  pulled  a 
large  revolver  from  its  holster. 

"  Now,  girl,  get  away  from  that  dog;  I'm 
goin'  to  shoot  him  and  I  don't  want  to  hurt 
yer." 

The  girl  turned  white,  but  she  placed 
herself  in  front  of  Rover,  shielding  him 
as  much  as  she  could  with  her  slender 
body. 

"  Hold  on,  my  friend,"  interposed  the 
Cowboy;  "you  mus'n't  shoot  that  dog." 

"  Who's  goin'  to  stop  me?  "  sneered  Jake. 

"lam." 


228  ONE    TOUCH    OF    NATURE. 

"  You  are,  are  you  ?  Well,  I'm  goin'  to 
shoot  him  just  the  same." 

"  If  you  shoot  that  dog  I'll  give  you  such 
a  beating  yer  own  mother  won't  know  yer. 
Sabby?" 

"  Won't,  hey  ?  Perhaps  you  notice  I've 
got  a  gun  ?  "  said  Jake,  with  an  evil  look  in 
his  eyes. 

"  I've  got  one,  too,  but  I  ain't  pulled  it 
yet,"  answ-ered  the  Cowboy  slowly. 

"See  here,  now,"  interposed  Jake's  com- 
panion, "where  do  I  come  in?  What'll  I 
be  doin'  all  the  time  when  you're  smashin' 
up  my  pard  here  ?  " 

"  I  will  try  and  occupy  your  attention," 
quietly  said  the  Eastern  man. 

"  The  hell  you  will  !  " 

"  I  will." 

"  Now,  gentlemen,"  said  the  Cowboy, 
"  we  don't  want  no  trouble,  but  there  is  a 
peck  of  it  around  here  if  you  fellers  try  to 
hurt  that  dog.  The  dog  bit  yer  because  yer 


ONE   TOUCH   OF   NATURE.  229 

tried  to  kiss  the  girl,  and  he  served  you 
damn  well  right  !  " 

"  It's  a  lie  !  "  interrupted  Jake  sullenly. 

How  it  was  done  the  Eastern  man  never 
knew,  but  Jake  went  staggering  backward, 
and  when  he  recovered  himself  and  stood 
with  the  blood  trickling  from  a  cut  under 
his  eye,  the  Cowboy  had  him  covered  with 
a  big  Colt's  45,  and  the  eyes  which  looked 
at  him  over  the  barrel  were  ugly  enough  to 
make  a  gamer  man  than  Jake  feel  uneasy. 

"  Drop  yer  gun." 

Jake  dropped  it. 

"  Now  move  away  from  it." 

Jake  did  so. 

The  Cowboy  handed  his  big  pistol  to  the 
Eastern  man  and  walked  straight  up  to 
Jake,  who  looked  decidedly  uncomfort- 
able. 

"Now  take  it  back,  or  I'll  smash  yer 
face,"  said  the  Cowboy  savagely. 

"  All   right,  but,   damn  you,  if  it   warn't 


230  ONE    TOUCH    OF    NATURE. 

that  my  leg  is  sore  where  the  dog  bit  me 
I'd  fight  yer  till  I  couldn't  see  !  " 

The  Cowboy  smiled  grimly. 

"  Good  enough  !     Now  get  out  of  here." 

"  Wait  a  minute,"  interposed  the  Eastern 
man;  "  may  I  make  a  suggestion?  " 

"  Cert,  pard,  —  why,  sure  !  "  answered  the 
Cowboy. 

"  Well,  it  seems  to  me  this  matter  had 
better  be  settled  amicably  if  possible  ;  if 
not,  after  we  are  gone  something  might 
happen  to  the  dog.  After  what  has  hap- 
pened the  gentleman  naturally  feels  an  ani- 
mosity towards  the  animal.  Now,  I  would 
suggest  that  he  name  a  sum  of  money  which 
he  would  consider  sufficient  to  compensate 
him  for  injuries  received.  I  would  be  glad 
to  pay  a  reasonable  amount  —  say  ten  dol- 
lars —  in  settlement  of  all  damages,  if  the 
gentleman  will  agree  not  to  attempt  to  in- 
jure the  dog  in  any  way." 

"  I'll  agree  to  that,"  cried  Jake  eagerly. 


ONE   TOUCH    OF   NATURE. 


23I 


"  Very  well,  here  is  the  money."  The 
Eastern  man  held  out  a  ten-dollar  gold 
piece,  which  was  seized  upon  by  Jake,  and 
without  a  word  he  and  his  companion 
started  in  a  straight  line  for  the  saloon. 

The  Cowboy  shouted  after  them  :  "  Re- 
member, I'll  be  back  here  next  week,  and  if 
the  dog  isn't  all  right  there'll  be  trouble." 
Then,  turning  to  the  girl,  he  said : 

"Well,  sis,  the  show's  over;  the  dog's 
all  right,  so  I  guess  I'll  get  aboard  the  train. 
So,  so  long." 

"  Please  tell  me  your  name,  sir,  and  you, 
too,  sir,"  turning  to  the  Eastern  man. 

"  Why,  sis,  what  do  you  want  to  know 
my  name  for  ?  " 

"  To  pray  for  you,  sir  ;  mother's  dead, 
but  I  pray  every  night  just  the  same,  and  I 
ask  God  to  bless  Rover  —  he's  all  I've  got 
now,  you  know.  Is  that  wrong,  sir  ?  and 
to-night  and  every  night  I'm  goin'  to  ask 
God  to  bless  both  o'  you  for  bein'  so  kind 
ter  Rover  and  me." 


232 


ONE   TOUCH    OF    NATURE. 


"  Oh,  that's  all  right,  sis  ;  don't  think  of 
it ; "  the  Cowboy's  voice  was  husky. 
"  Good-by  ;  good-by,  Rover,  old  boy." 

He  seized  the  big  dog  in  his  arms  and 
turned  him  over  on  his  back,  holding  him 
down.  The  dog  caught  one  of  the  man's 
hands  in  his  huge  mouth  and  chewed  it  gently, 
while  the  Cowboy  poked  him  playfully  in 
the  ribs  with  the  other.  Then  the  man 
jumped  up  and  ran  for  the  car,  with  Rover 
leaping  and  romping  about  him,  uttering 
great  deep  barks  of  joy.  The  Eastern  man 
followed  more  slowly;  a  cinder  or  some- 
thing had  got  into  his  eye,  and  he  was 
ostentatiously  wiping  it  out  with  the  corner 
of  his  handkerchief. 

That  night,  in  the  darkness  of  her  room, 
the  girl  knelt  by  the  side  of  her  rough  bed, 
and  whispered  softly  her  little  prayer  : 
"  God  bless  mamma, 
God  bless  papa, 

God  bless  Rover,  and  bless  the  two  fel- 


ONE   TOUCH    OF   NATURE. 


233 


lers  that  was    good  to   me  and    Rover — I 
dunno  their  names,  God,  but  you  do." 

The  sounds  of  a  slight  figure  getting  into 
bed  were  followed  by  "  'Scuse  me,  Rover,  I 
didn't  mean  to  step  on  yer  foot  ;  good- 
night, Rover,  dear."  Several  heavy  blows 
on  the  floor  answered  her,  and  then  for  a 
time  there  was  silence.  The  wind  moaned 
faintly  in  the  chimney  and  a  rat  squeaked 
and  scampered  across  the  floor  ;  then  a 
board  creaked,  —  the  child  slept  on  obliv- 
ious to  it  all, —  but  at  each  new  sound  the 
dark  form  on  the  floor  stirred  slightly,  a 
shaggy  head  was  raised,  and  wide-open, 
faithful  eyes  gazed  in  the  direction  from 
whence  it  came,  intent,  alert,  and  watchful. 


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